What happens if you are in an accident and don’t know the details of the guilty driver?

Through our years of experience the staff at Liddy’s Solicitors in Barnsley have found that the key to many cases is in the details. Often these details are not easy to acquire, and we have had to get creative in order to acquire them. A perfect example of this is if you suffer an injury through a car accident, but didn’t catch the details of the person that hit you. In these cases we have had to think outside the box to acquire the details.

Liddys Solicitors recently settled a case where we had to track down the driver of a car by interviewing the taxi firm of the taxi she was in. Our client developed a whiplash injury when a car smashed into the back of her taxi. Knowing the details made all the difference. We recovered £3,000 in damages for our client. Had she not been able to identify the car registration of the driver responsible, the damages could be half that sum.

Taxi drivers are mostly self-employed and any claim for damages is made through the driver’s insurers, not the insurer of the taxi company. So if you do not know the registration number of the taxi we can usually get the details from the taxi company. By law, they have to keep details of your journey. If the taxi was not to blame for the accident the taxi company will typically still give us all the details that we need.

If you have used a hackney cab though that is not an option. On some occasions we had to think creatively and get the details our client needed from CCTV footage in busses, or from cameras on the road.

It is imperative that you get what details you can. If you cannot identify the driver responsible, you can still recover damages, but the compensation will be much less. In a high value claim it is no exaggeration to say it could a difference of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Liddy’s solicitors based in Barnsley have dealt with hundreds of claims from road traffic accidents. This means not only do we have the necessary qualifications to handle your case, but the experience to make sure we are successful. If you have recently been involved in a road traffic accident give us a call on 01226 731 314, or contact us here, to see how we can help.