Anyone been to court?

[Strawburger]

Hi All,

I am midway through a battle to get my bike repaired after a crash with a driver. I'll spare you the details as some of you have probably read it over on the ACF's...

Anyway, the letter of demand has been ignored (i rang up and checked to see what intention they had of paying up), basically they said see you in court with a lot of other nasty things to say about me. I don't think they realise they were charged and they are in the wrong. The next step is an Intention to Sue letter. If this is still ignored, i'm heading down to Newtown court...

Has anyone been through the process? Any tips to share? Will i need a police report (sounds like it's hard to get without insurance)?

I guess not only was i unlucky being hit, but also by the wrong sort of person A big lessons learned: get separate bike insurance or insurance without a big excess.

Cheers

Simon

[timyone]

sounds interesting, nah i havent been to court :S actually ive been to court for a guy that got hit by the actual guy who he was complaining to, i was the witness for it, and the lady policewoman was really nice

[weiyun]

All I can suggest is that having a competent lawyer representing you can make a difference. But obviously that has to be balanced by the cost benefit. Other than that you should just have all your evidences laid out in full and leave no holes for the opponent. Then whether you can extract the funds from your opponent may be another exercise in patience and legal wrangling.

Good luck!

[othy]

If you were injured an made a claim with the MTA then the insurance company should probably have given you a copy of the police report as part of the process. Thats how I got mine.

Getting the police report otherwise looked like trouble + time consuming without insurance involved. I think it is worth trying to get this - mine even listed the driver as at fault. Also, apparently I wasn't wearing a seatbelt on my bicycle.....

All I can suggest is that having a competent lawyer representing you can make a difference. But obviously that has to be balanced by the cost benefit. Other than that you should just have all your evidences laid out in full and leave no holes for the opponent. Then whether you can extract the funds from your opponent may be another exercise in patience and legal wrangling.

Good luck!

No lawyers usually in the local court. You probably won't get the lawyer costs back either as what you can claim is very limited.

[weiyun]

Whether having a lawyer present or not in the local court is purely at the party's discretion. But I agree that cost benefit may be questionable depending on the case. Although a competent lawyer would know how to apply the maximal leverage and would analyse the cost benefits of his/her services prior going forward. Further, given the nature of the defendant, lawyer may be of value in chasing up the funds/damages.

One thing just remembered. If you are a NRMA member, then they have a legal advisory service for members. May be of some value if one is not keen on engaging a private lawyer. Otherwise I understand that BNSW also have something similar for members.

[Rainbow]

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[Strawburger]

Hi All,

Thanks for the informative replies!

I wasn't aware of the NRMA benefit. I will ring up and see what they can do for me on top of what has been written here below.

Once this is done i intend to write up a detailed report as a reference for those who may need to one day go through this ordeal.