insurance and accidents - how long?

Did you inform you insurance company at the time? If so I guess you talk to them and get them to fight it. If you didnt they'll probably tell you where to go, in which case get a solicitor!

I've got 2 letters from them one stating "will you be submitting a claim remembering there is a £400 excess on the policy" and one stating "thank you for informing us that you will not be making a claim"

so, I'm thinking that they've had the claim form, seen that it is a cut and dried case (up the arse, witnesses etc) and have left it at that due to the miniscule amount of damage the problem now is that they don't seem to have a record of it, and the claim reference numberon the paperwork they have sent me (way back in 2002) doesn't match up with the claim number for that particular claim (it's someone else in another car on a different year etc)

I don't know what's going on because the court letter states that if I don't get back to them within 28 days they will assume I am guilty who pays the £5k the guy wants then? because I won't be

Ahhh - Wales. Damn.

Hmm. Did you inform them of the incident? If you didn't then you may be out on a limb, if you did, and you took out motor legal cover, you should be okay.

Do you have the witness details?

First things first, is this from the chap's solicitor via his insurance company or not? It may be the insurance company trying to claim back their losses against you.

Okay, first off, it's not your problem they can't find the details if you have it in writing that they are aware of it.

Did you have motor legal protection?

Hire a good solicitor and go to court.

from the looks of it he is claiming against my insurnace company because it's got his name and me and my insurnace comapny as the 1st party i honestly don't know whats going on here because i've never been to court before (well i have but thats a whole other kettle of tomatoes)

i'm still waiting for the insurance company to chase their tails, their name is on the court thing too :)

Why do you need to go to court?

The only reason would be if you never had insurance, then you would be summoned by the police, otherwise it's the insurance companies job to do all the donkey work.

Legal protection is used mainly when they cannot find out who is the responsible party, but this is generally only for fully comp drivers to keep their no claims. You should already have "Third Party" cover, which is all you minimally need to drive in the UK

It is an offence to not report an accident, but only when it involves people or certain animals, or the other driver is not present, seems to me in this situation, neither party had any damage, and you went on your way, there must be a time scale in which the other party should inform his insurance company of a claim, then you will get a letter from yours, explaining the situation.

the letter I've got back the second time states that I can use the legal cover on my policy to claim back any expenses I feel I have suffered due to not claiming :)