Cycle accident and whether to go to court or not

hello – looking for some advice/thoughts 

Back in July I was involved in a cycle accident. Basically I was cycling on the main road and a car driver pulled out in front of me. Didn’t have time to stop and ended up having to move towards the curb with the car taking up most of the road and me effectively being side swiped and knocked off my bike.  Damage to bike and myself. Fortunately I have a cycliq camera so whole accident is on film. Incident reported to the police.

So move on a few months and the car drivers insurance company admit liability. Police then call and say they have reviewed the footage and think there are other factors at play – a van in front of me braked further down the road and the car that pulled out moved to the kerb to try and squeeze past the van hence forcing me off the road. The fact that if the car driver had looked and not pulled out no accident would have occured seems not to count much for the police. 

However, they have given me a choice of either sending the car driver a letter which then stays on their file or taking the matter to court. In my mind they pushed the letter alot and seemed unkeen to   about going to court. Personally I think court acts as more of a deterrent than some letter but would be interested to hear peoples thoughts.

And whilst it shouldnt make any difference but no doubt will in court the car driver was a lady in her late 60’s/early 70’s.

I’ll add that i’m a seasoned cycle commuter so use to my fair share of close calls but just think a letter seems abit of a cop out.

Appreciate the input