Hitting a parked vehicle and not leaving details

[Stubby]

20 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Case won!

 

Costs awarded and Court fees reimbursed. 

 

After some celebratory bacon sandwiches, and catching up on some work, I'll post a summary of, what might be, interesting and relevant reflections in case anyone finds them self in similar circumstances in the future. 

 

PS no stocks Mr E! Beak was very decent chap!!

Nice one Kev . Tenacity paid off .

[eggsarascal]

46 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Case won!

 

Costs awarded and Court fees reimbursed. 

 

After some celebratory bacon sandwiches, and catching up on some work, I'll post a summary of, what might be, interesting and relevant reflections in case anyone finds them self in similar circumstances in the future. 

 

PS no stocks Mr E! Beak was very decent chap!!

They'll get ya next time.......

 

Good skills, well done.

[josharb87]

Great news! What did it end up costing the guilty party in the end? 

[Steve Bullman]

Result,

wel done!

[skyhuck]

Good for you!!! 

 

So were you reimbursed  for all your time and trouble?

[Mark Bolam]

Nice one Kev.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

On 16 August 2017 at 11:38, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Case won!

 

Costs awarded and Court fees reimbursed. 

 

After some celebratory bacon sandwiches, and catching up on some work, I'll post a summary of, what might be, interesting and relevant reflections in case anyone finds them self in similar circumstances in the future. 

 

PS no stocks Mr E! Beak was very decent chap!!

Right then, I'll have a go at summarising it all....

 

Case won - correct

Costs awarded - correct (but see below)

Court fees reimbursed - correct

 

17 hours ago, skyhuck said:

So were you reimbursed  for all your time and trouble?

No! 

 

Going right back to the beginning, it was because the other party denied liability that I was faced with either picking up the cost of repair or making a claim against my own insurance that I didn't initially give it to the insurance company to resolve.  As a consequence of this, I did a bit (but not much) more phone calls / admin than would have been the case if it had all been done by the insurance company. 

 

The amount of hassle and admin involved either way was, frankly, staggering so I started to tot up all the time, miles, letters, emails and phone calls.  I set an arbitrary rate of £25/hr for time, £0.50 per mile travelled, £0.50 per minute phone calls which all totted up to around £1600 which was the basis of the claim.  No big deal and actually, it was never about the money - honestly.

 

The other party engaged a legal firm to deal with it and they were a PITA from the outset making daft requests, asking stupid questions (all of which were rebutted and rejected) and generally dicking around.  They declined to engage in mitigation prior to proceeding to a Court listing and on that basis I simply rejected their subsequent requests.  They made a "Calderbank offer" prior to Court which I also rejected.  It was, what they thought, a clever tactic since if the case had been lost, the refusal of the Calderbank offer can be presented to the Court as an example of "unreasonableness" on the part of the claimant and can be considered in awarding costs and considering the counter claim.   

 

I'd included in my Court bundle (papers submitted prior to hearing) details of the witnesses, photographs of the layout of the carpark, details of the D&C constabulary compulsory driver training in place of prosecution etc.  The other side's legal team were still maintaining that the accident never happened (and liability was denied.)  They started banging on about why the witnesses weren't present and the Judge looked at me....  I simply said "it's a fait accompli! Why drag in witnesses and tie up more time and resources when the D&C constabulary option of driver retraining requires both the victim of the crime to agree and the perp to admit liability and voluntarily pay and undertake the training?"  It's done, it's a matter of record, maintaining the denial is indicative of the unreasonableness of the defendant's stance.

 

Anyway's, Judge gave the impression of being pretty much 'on-side' and was showing signs of impatience with the bumbling fool presenting the defence - and a bumbling fool he was!  It was like something out of a bad TV drama, grubby suit, stained tie, shuffling papers, mumbling incoherently, etc...  (I think I may have slightly unsettled him in the waiting room though....  We're both sat in the waiting area for Court 4, the Usher told him who I was and he came over, hand extended for a shake and asked "is there anything you'd like to discuss prior to going in?"   I left him blushing and farting with no desire to shake his hand and simply replied "you can make a settlement in full otherwise there's nothing to discuss" as I return to my book.  Wife said it did raise a giggle from the goons sitting nearby )

 

The bottom line, in the Small Claims Track, you can't reclaim litigation costs and the time/admin associated with remediating the damage was deemed to be litigation costs.  The Judge appeared (to me) to be quite sorry about this as he explained that he was bound by government policy in that respect despite what his personal thoughts were.  So no, the exam answer is, you can't (in the Small Claims Track) recover your time and effort (or legal expenses if you have a firm do it for you.)  

 

What you can however recover are necessary disbursements.  Because my insurance company would not release the name and address of the registered keeper of the other vehicle I had to submit form V888 to DVLA at a princely sum of £2.50.  This is a necessary dispersement since it was the only means by which I could access the information.   

 

So the Judge found in my favour since I had incurred the cost of £2.50 to bring the case to Court.  I was awarded £2.50 costs and reimbursed the Court fees since my action had been upheld.  The Defence counter claim was dismissed.

 

There's a lot more to it than that summary and I'll expand any points if anyone wants to.

 

Would I do it all again....

 

Well, most of the work, time, effort would have happened anyway just to get the damaged fixed, all I did extra was tot it up, a moneyclaimonline submission, a few extra letters, prep some Court papers and drive 15 miles each way to have an hour in Court.  The wife and nipper came along and sat in at the back - Nipper's first exposure to the legal system which may be the germ of a future illustrious legal career.

 

Has it cost the other driver - yes, cost and ignominy of retraining and (hopefully) increased insurance premiums.  

 

Has it cost the other driver's legal firm - yes, much more than it has cost me, albeit probably through insurance, but hopefully that in turn will affect the driver's future policy. 

 

Has it been a cracking experience - yes.

 

Would I do it all again.....  

 

In hindsight, the find 'em and hurt 'em approach would have been much quicker and more satisfying....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[roys]

Top summary Kev, thanks for thee update, very interesting.

 

[sandspider]

Well done.

 

Will you pursue the driver directly for your additional costs?

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

16 minutes ago, sandspider said:

Will you pursue the driver directly for your additional costs?

That was me pursuing the the other party....  It seems it can't really be done via Small Claims.