costs claim from AI Claims and MTA Solicitors LLP - help!!

[ian rees]

Dear Sirs,

 

We hope you can help us or direct us to someone who can.

 

In November 2012, my girlfriend was driving and hit by the car behind.

She was waiting at a give way junction but the driver in the car behind was not looking where he was going

and drove straight into her car.

 

 

We were contacted by Ai Claims Solutions, a claims management company.

 

 

The letter we received stated:

"Please do not enter into any correspondence or conversation with the other party.

It is our responsibility to obtain payment of the charges from the third party insurance company."

 

Subsequently, the third party insurance company, Quinn Insurance wrote-off our car and offered £1,139.25.

We purchased the car just under a year ago for £3,800.

 

 

It is a 2002, left hand drive, diesel Smart car and as it was not listed in the car guide,

the insurance assessor estimated a value of £1,139.25.

We disputed this as similar cars on AutoTrader and eBay at the time were selling at around £3,000.

 

 

As a result, the assessor increased the value to £2,079 and we received a letter from Ai Claims to confirm this new amount.

 

We received a cheque for £1,139.25 but

after having chased the remainder of the balance,

£939.75 via emails and phone calls,

we felt we were getting nowhere and decided to pursue the matter through the small claims court.

 

 

We pursued the matter with Ai Claims as they had been in correspondence with us and Quinn Insurance.

 

 

A hearing was scheduled in January 2014.

Unfortunately, during this time, my girlfriend was diagnosed with breast cancer

and we did not attend the hearing.

 

 

However, the case was thrown out of court as the judge ruled Ai Claims were not liable

as they were not the insurance company.

 

 

Ai Claims then sought the action of the court to order me to pay Ai Claims' legal costs.

Thus, Ai Claims hired MTA Solicitors LLP to represent them.

 

 

A letter was received from MTA Solicitors, Richard Barr stating

"I have instructions not to pursue you for our client's legal costs should you withdraw or re-direct your claim"

followed by an email

"If by 4pm on Wednesday 19th February 2014 you have not notified me that you have discontinued your claim

or applied to the court to substitute my client for Quinn Insurance,

an application for Summary Judgment will be made,

the cost of which I shall ask the court you be ordered to pay."

 

On 7 February 2014 I sent an email to Mr Richard Barr to confirm that I would not be continuing with the claim against Ai Claims

on the proviso that they will not be pursuing legal costs.

 

 

At the same time, a letter was sent to Bristol County Court to advise them of this development.

 

 

Therefore, in May I was shocked to receive a letter requesting payment of Ai Claims' legal costs totalling £4,459.32.

 

We cannot believe our bad luck and feel we have not been treated fairly.

Through no fault of our own, we have a car that has been written-off and a payment received for only a third of the car's value,

plus we have been ordered to pay Ai Claims legal costs.

 

 

This whole situation has arisen from the fact that Quinn Insurance have failed to pay the full claim

and Ai Claims have failed to obtain the remainder of the claim.

 

We have contacted our insurance company,

Aviva who do not want to get involved and citizen's advice bureau who were unable to offer any advice.

 

We cannot see an end to this.

We would be so grateful for your advice or help so that we can put away this worry and stress.

Thank you for your time and we hope that there is someone who can help us with this problem.

[Ganymede]

Hi,

 

I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but you really should have checked who you should be sueing before taking Court action.

 

As for the costs order, did you do anything more than send an email to MTA solicitors?

 

What exactly did you send to Court? Was it an official Notice of Discontinuance?

[ian rees]

We sent a letter to the MTA solicitors and a letter to the court, But unfortunately didn't realise there was a special way or doing it but was unaware.

[steampowered]

Who did the letter come from? And what has happened in May? It would be interesting to know the basis on which they are trying to claim costs.