Insurance Question - Court Related

[michael]

A while ago I posted up an account where my other half had been hit by a TNT lorry, basically she was passing him on a dual carriageway when he suddenly pulled out into her lane, hit her, forced her into oncoming traffic and wrecked the side of the car.

 

Fairly clear cut but being a big company TNT had an insurance van there within 10 minutes and refuse to accept liability.

 

My good lady is with Tesco and currently £250 out of pocket for the excess and a year of NCB down while things are sorted. Tesco are taking TNT to court to recover costs and have appointed a solicitor to act on their behalf.

 

OK I'll get to the point now

 

Tesco expect Angela to go to court on their behalf to help them reclaim the expense of repairing the car, she has a summons and lots of small claims stuff with all the info on.

 

Is this normal?

 

I haven't had to claim when the other part hasn't accepted full liability but it seems odd that they would ask their customer to attend court when all they want is their excess back. She's submitted statements and things, I would have thought that was enough and the rest be down to Tesco and the solicitors to deal with?

 

Amusingly the TNT legal team have the lorry in the wrong lane in their statement, the numberplate of their own vehicle is wrong and it contains this classic:

 

It is further denied that he drove into the path of and/or collided with the Claimant's vehicle.

.

 

Does this look like a vehicle that hasn't been in a collision?

 

http://www.megaboost.co.uk/punto/crash-23-3-06/small/DSCF1287.JPG

 

So is it normal for a customer to attend court when all they want is their NCB and excess back?

[Class One]

She's a witness for the appellant, so if her evidence is required, then she will be called.

[AlanM]

I have never heard of it happening before and I have been around a fair while

[michael]

She's a witness for the appellant, so if her evidence is required, then she will be called.

 

This is the odd bit (which I should have mentioned above) - all the court papers have been submitted with Angela as the Claimant, it's not Tesco vs TNT with her as a witness, it's been done as her against them.

 

It reads like it's her trying to claim back for all the repairs etc, it's this aspect of it that confuses me the most.

 

There was a passenger in the car too, there has been no request for them make a statement or attend court despite them being willing to.

[Class One]

Just might be that the defence then have requested that she give her evidence orally in order for a cross examination. Perhaps they are challenging her statement. Sorry can't think of any other reason. The solicitor in the case should have covered all this in the run up and gone through her evidence prior to the case being heard. Has that been done?

[michael]

Unfortunately not, the solicitors aren't very helpful at all - they only seem to be capable of posting standard stuff out, don't respond to questions / issues raised in letters back and are very hard to contact on the phone. Tesco's own legal dept seem even more clueless.

[Kranz]

Her statement hasn't been accepted by the defence, therefore they are contesting some or all of its content. In other words they are trying to get out of it!!

 

Angela will be the claimant as it was her car/insurance policy therefore she is the loser & needs to claim against them.

 

You need to speak to the solicitor about the passenger as a witness. Ensure that thius has been disclosed to the defence.