friend just knocked off bike by minicab. Any lawyers to recommend?

Adam Ef wrote:

comm88 wrote:

Can’t recommend Leigh Day highly enough – they act for British Cycling and they are brilliant – tenacious, thorough and unrelenting.

Have you used them? I’m looking for advice following being knocked off and have been referred to them via British Cycling. I’m not sure what it all involves though or if that’s the route I want to take. Finding it all quite overwhelming.

I used them a few years back through BC. Can’t say enough good about them. The driver who took me out claimed he was stationary at the junction and his insurance company told me to p155 off. No messing, minimal involvement for me and I got what I wanted (which was the cost of a replacement jacket, forks and front wheel. 

Can’t recommend Leigh Day
Can’t recommend Leigh Day highly enough – they act for British Cycling and they are brilliant – tenacious, thorough and unrelenting. They’ve also got vast experience with all types of cycling injury claims and law disputes.

They don’t let go and they’ll do you proud with sound, solid and considered advice at every stage of the claims process! =D>

Get hold of Penny Knight and her team.

You can find them here: http://www.leighday.co.uk <http://www.leighday.co.uk>

Penny Knight, Partner
Leigh Day & Co. Priory House, 25 St John’s Lane, London EC1M 4LB
Tel: 020 7650 1315 Secretary (Cara): 020 7650 1237

If the police do nothing then
If the police do nothing then your local paper is a good next move. Even better if the driver was foreign-looking (no minicab stereotyping there then!!), you can push the illegal immigrant, uninsured, unlicensed story. The Daily Mail won’t know whether to hate you the cyclist or the driver.

If the minicab driver was
If the minicab driver was uninsured then I would assume he was unlicenced also. And therefore you pursue it like any other claim against a driver – legal contacts above.

Please tell me that they’ve got the driver’s details and preferably a photo of them and their car with a big fat dent in it and numberplate showing?

Unfortunately, regardless of
Unfortunately, regardless of what is said above the Police are not interested in this sort of thing and lawyers are only interested in your ability to pay. My wife went to a lot of trouble to identify and take to court an apparently very nice chap who was driving a lorry for a company called ‘Atlas Express’ without insurance. She took him to court, it was time consuming but not too difficult. He ‘cooked his goose’ by counter-suing for £5,500 for things including harassing his brother (who’s address he gave on scene) and the cost of ‘baby-sitting’ his Iguana while attending court. Presumably it was this dilemma that convinced him to not bother to turn up to court.
After winning the case she accepted an offer by the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) made on the phone; they later denied making the offer. The offer that they claimed she agreed to made all she had done a waste of time. The moral of this story; any dealings with insurance companies or MIB should be in writing. Report the incident to the Police and get an incident number (very important). The court process was not too difficult, getting the evidence is time consuming but you only need to prove that your version of events is more likely than theirs (balance of probability). Good luck!
Whilst it was expensive and frustrating at the time being able to say we have been sued for the cost of baby sitting an Iguana is pretty priceless!
AND it gave the Judge and courtroom a good laugh
edit: when I say sued I should say threatened with being sued! The Judge thought his ‘counter sue’ was hilarious. The driver got nothing from us! Hopefully the MIB got their money from him eventually. When I say expensive, it cost us a no claims bonus! The small claims court is typically £25 and claimant friendly, you do not need to be represented, but it would be worth getting your claim professionally assessed to ensure you make the best possible presentation. That said my wife just did it! We were ‘stitched up’ by our insurance company and the MIB; people we thought we could trust….

One other thought, is she a
One other thought, is she a union member? They normally have some pretty good legal stuff included in their memberships.

Report it to the police, any
Report it to the police, any local lawyer should be able to help. Suggest she checks her contents insurance may be legal cover there.