Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok, last year I had an incident with a 15 year old lad resulting in over £700 worth of damage to my car. He was 15 at the time and will only be 16 now, so my question is, if I take him to the small claims court for the cost of damages, is someone responsible for paying them? Also has anyone done this and got their money owed as if he/his family don't pay I apparently need to then fund debt collection.

I suppose I'm just trying to find out if this will be worth my time effort and money, so any thoughts welcome.

The place to start is the Citizens' Advice Bureau. They'd be in a much better position to tell you who pays what if you win than well-meaning forum amateurs.

I presume you've got all your police statements safely stored away.

Yeah, I'm gonna go next week, just wondered if anyone on here had any experience.

There weren't any police statements, just what was noted down in their little books and I've saved the answering machine message that they left me, not sure what good I think that will do though!

Was he charged/prosecuted for criminal damage? If not, then surely he could just deny that he is responsible for the damage.

Also, have you attempted to get him to pay for the damages or liaised with him at all?

This article seems quite useful.

It also includes a sample letter you might write to recover money owed to you before proceeding with a small claim.

No, but I have independent witnesses who have said they will back me and he admitted to the police and the ambulance peeps at the scene that it was all his fault, I'm not too concerned with liability.

I have tried to speak to his parents about it, in a very nice way - but I just got loads of abuse and blamed for the whole thing, his mum had decided that I was at fault as her son had told her that the police were going to caution me and the only reason they didn't was because he didn't want them too as he is a friend of my sons. I contacted the police officer involved about this to see what it was she was going to caution me for and she said it was a load of bollocks, there was nothing they could caution me for as he was so obviously the one at fault.

It seems that the lad has told his parents a load of crap and of course they are believing him thinking I am just after the money when he was the one with the personal injuries. I've had a couple of abusive phone calls off them that made me feel the size of a thimble and considering what was going on in my life at that time it made me question my own judgement to be honest. I just couldn't have dealt with this on top of everything else back then.

Thanks for the link Kev, I'll have a proper look when I get back.

I have no knowledge of this at all, JazzyG, but I hope it all goes Ok for you and doesn't cause an stress.

Hopefully you'll find a CAB adviser that knows their salt, on teh unhappy occasions I have had to seek their advice they were less than helpful, unfortunately.

Accidents happen, if you're sure this person was at fault then there's no reason you shouldn't be compensated for the damage.

Sounds like you gave them the chance to put it right, but they're being dicks about it so there's no other option but to go via the police / courts etc. This is more hassle and cost on both sides, but there's no need to feel bad about it: their decision.

Did you claim the repair on your insurance by the way? Normally they'd initiate proceedings to get it paid by the other party, and you may have legal cover included in the policy as well.


[edit] Oh wait, *15* ? OK, forget that then.

Stu Campbell has experience of the small claims courts procedure. Perhaps it might be worth asking on WoS?

If you need someone to start a thread for you, just shout.

Not a bad idea, can I type it up properly and PM it to you later/tomorrow?

The man from CAB, he say yes! I'm off to pick up the forms this afternoon.

Heh, that's the spirit - if I start getting the nasty phone calls again I'm gonna need you all to back me up and tell me I'm in the right here and not going mad!

If this happens, record and log them immediately.

It was all your fault and you're going down. Oh, hang on… that's not what you asked.

Good luck, J. I hope it all goes smoothly and in your favour.

Oh I will. I've got the number for the local plod too, comes under harrassment and intimidation I think.

Definitely does. You can get her phone disconnected, but this is tricky. You could certainly add it to her bill in the Small Claims Court, though.