GarethE

iTrader: (1)

I witnessed a fairly straight forward accident at a junction, where the guy in front of me was clearly at fault, so I stopped and gave my details to both drivers in case of any problems.....I now wish I hadn't !!!

The police have sent me a witness statement form, which I duly completed and returned, and also a witness statement form from the"innocent party's" insurance company....fair enough.

I've since had another two forms... one from a "where there's blame, there's a claim" type company and one from the other drivers insurance company.

Is there a legal responsibilty having declared myself as a witness to complete all these forms ? ...no problem with the police one, but I'm getting a bit pissed off with it all now.

Now I understand why witnesses are hard to come by.

Any ideas?

holmsey

No obligation to give a statement- but if it ever goes to civil court you could be witnessed summonsed to attend and give evidence- like it or not. It may be better to give a statement; if liability is clear cut, less likely to go to trial.
Paul Holmes- Insurance Solicitor

subarujimmy

iTrader: (3)

Its probably a good job you gave your details, cos i recently had a bump (june), and a guy stopped behind me and gave me and the police his details. I'm glad he did cos the other driver was blaming me! And the other guy had to admit it then. So the non-fault driver is very probably very grateful, I know i was.

Izzy

Firstly, it's good that you came forward as a witness. Such an action helps stop spurious unfounded claims costing us all money.

Secondly, It is exceptionally, very, unlikely you will be summond to a Court hearing - only a realy stupid solicitor would do such and run the risk of getting himself & his client a "hostile witness" - so dont worry about that.

Lastly, if your getting pi$$ed off with more statement requests, a)you are not obliged to complete them & b)just tell them you've given a statement to whoever's insurers etc & tell the new request to get a copy from there...

GarethE

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the comments guys...I'm glad I did stop, as I hope someone would do the same for me if I was unfortunate enough to be involved, and I don't have a problem helping the police or the insurance companies dealing on behalf of their clients.

The problem is I've had to make the same statement, answer the same questions, and draw the same sketch 4 times, which takes up fair bit of my time considering its not for my benefit. I don't won't to sound selfish but its not exactly a two minute job, I'll help anyone out in trouble, but you do feel a bit put out.

I think I'm also a bit 'pevved' as I think the 'innocent party' is pushing for compensation for a supposed injury to one of the rear passengers. We hadn't even exchanged details at the scene and one of the other passengers was already talking about making a claim for an injury....perhaps thats why I'm a bit anti form filling at moment. One more incident to force up insurance...especially as I think its a bit of a con.

Anyway...back to the form filling....its a shame the insurance companies cannot obtain a copy of the police witness statement - all the information they could ever need is on that