Hi all most of you will remember the accident i had on boxing day last year but for those who dont here is a link to the previous thread!!….http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/just-had-a-car-crash

Well as you can see this still hasn’t been resolved and it is going to court.

today i contacted the solicitor appointed to me by my insurance to let her know i was back in the country and also to get an update on how things are going.

I have to say she seems very switched on and so far im impressed.

she basically told me that after she received my statement and photos of the accident scene she wrote a very comprehensive letter to the solicitors representing the other party. basically saying that he had crossed road markings etc and had caused the accident, they contacted her back saying no thats not true and that the road markings had changed between us having the accident and me taking the photos i supplied her with, this is completely untrue and im led to believe they are just grasping at straws here.

she also told me that it isn’t going through his insurance company now and it is one of these “no win no fee” type things that are acting on his behalf????

my question is then , how does this affect the outcome of the accident with regards to who was at fault??

why aren’t his insurance doing it for him, have his insurance wiped there hands of him??

he is taking me to court for the damage to his car and loss of earnings by the way??

any ideas??

cheers

Steve

All the advice I can offer is stand your corner, let it go to court and be confident, concise and honest in your answers. Very similar thing happened to my brother, the other partyi was a chancer and fell over under questioning and had his claim thrown out and was found at fault.

As m_f above, briefly reading through it sounds like they are on the back foot and trying it on. Be confident, stick to the facts and you will be fine.

I had an accident a few years back involving an 8 wheeled mobile crane rear ending me and squashing my car and almost me. Had all sorts of BS coming out. Stuck to the truth and the facts and 18months later was found completly not at fault and had all the damages awarded.

Stressful, time consuming and essentially a PITA but see it through and it will be distant memory.

The other party will, of course, have some evidence to show that the road markings have been changed ??

Stick to your guns, and I hope that things get sorted out for you sooner rather than later.

Hi mate, it is standard practise if it is going to court for the insurance to have solicitors now acting for the defendant instead. Don’t worry about the “no win no fee” wording that is standard practise these days to fund a claim to court, it is known as a CFA agreement. Just make sure your statement is as good as possible, make sure that any witnesses or police that attended give evidence and that you contact the council responsible, they can state as whether the road markings have been changed. If it goes to court if they are alleging that the markings have changed then they have to prove that is the case.
Difficult for me to comment any further without actually knowing the accident circumstances, but if it goes to court just stand your ground, be polite and don’t get annoyed and stick to your version of events.

If you’ve any questions drop me an email paul.whitlock20@ntlworld.com I’m a lawyer specialising in RTA’s and know how frustrating the process is.

Difficult to comment without knowing the full facts but if you have a good solicitor then you should be ok with good advice provided.
The change from Insurance backed to a solicitor on a CFA should be a good indicator as it may mean his insurers won’t pursue it and may have put it out for sale to a no-win no fee firm and they will take it on as a last ditch attempt. It’s not a bottomless pit of money though and there will probably stil be an insurer underwriting your opponents costs and they may not be happy if there is a chance they will lose as once it goes to trial costs go through the roof.
If it goes to trial though, one big tip that I have seen at trial, that is to keep calm under cross-examination from the opponent barrister. They thrive on winding you up to try and introduce some inconsistency and make you look like you are lying, something the judge will look dimly on. If you don’t understand the question ask for it to be repeated. Don’t guess an answer, if you don’t know the answer say so and, just to get the barrister on the back foot if they are being a bit r see, ask for the question to be repeated or say you don’t understand the question (providing it is a complicated one). Gives you a bit of time and if it is a flippant question the judge may intervene and ask the barrisetr for it to be clarified, that’s a point to you!
I have seen cases won and lost simply on the performance of the witness. The fact that it is going to trial means there is a disagreement on evidence and the judge will have to decide who’s evidence he prefers, Mr Level headed and calm or Mr Obnoxious and aggresive. It’s a no brainer.

Get all the evidence you can, go to court and win.

People lie all the time. Welcome to the world and don’t worry.

If they are claiming the road makings have been changed, I would have thought the local highways dept. should have records of when any work like that was done? Maybe worth a ring to them?

get the google maps and bing images of the site. Google maps satilite view is probably 3 years old, if the markings are the same then, it blows their argument out of the water.

Left lane probably never said ‘to go right’ anyway

here is a piccy of the marking of the road at the time of the accident…….

the chap you can see stood by the lights looking confused is the chap who hit me.

how can he say the marking have changed since the accident is beyond me??

Well, that’s easy. Take some photos now, and then get date-stamped ones from Google Earth or Bing Maps showing they’re the same.