I just need some legal advice that I have put on hold for way too long.
I was rear ended 4 years ago on my motorcycle by a car with $1200 worth of damages, both parties had no insurance (young and stupid). He wrote a statement and signed stating he will pay for damages, however, he has yet to pay. I have details of his license, but he has moved out and changed his number.
Would getting legal help be of any use at this point?
I want to see if theres anything I can do first
find their new address, send new letter with signature on delivery.
take them to court.
get a judgement.
now the difficult part is collecting.
The Australian Legal system actually protects people that are out to rip you off by making it more expensive to get your money back than its worth.
If it's on principle, or you know the person has money, isn't bankrupt or anything, then you can pursue if you must, but it will be a long, frustrating road.
You are not going to see the $1200 IMO.
If you chase it down, at the end of it all I guarantee you will say, I'd pay someone $1200 to not ever have to do that again.
Learn from it, move on, get insured so that those pricks can chase other pricks and you can go about your business without worry.
cheers.
First you must load up mspaint.exe and draw us a diagram
Try https://mva.financialrights.org.au
In most states I think you have 6 years so you might still have time, if you can find him.
Thanks for the comment, seems like theres no pathway for both parties not having insurance. But I'll give then a call on the weekday!
But this site is extremely useful, awesome resource!
Luckily enough I've also found his facebook, not sure how far that'll take me though.
I've read on the news about criminal scum taunting police on facebook, and they couldn't do anything about it.
It depends if you can locate him and he has assets. If he is broke, you will probably lose money in the chase.
He seemed somewhat broke and on the doll. I never wanted to force money out of him as I did go over to his old address to briefly speak to him time to time attempting to get payment plans and checking up on him as he had a hernia. But this does raise a good point.
If your car got fixed via insurance let them chase him it isnt your problem he admitted liability but if you did an under the table job then your probably getting ZERO back.
He sounds like a mass deadbeat
Two options …
don't forget 3. Bikies
Talking to someone with a legal background would definitely be a start. It depends on how much you want the money back and whether he can repay it. If you do go to civil court and win and he has no way of repaying it, you might get $10 back a week for the next couple of years or nothing.
You could apply to civil court to recover the money. No idea what state you are in but here is NSW's one:
http://www.courts.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/cats/courtguide/b…
I'm not familiar with the process, but hopefully the court can issue a summons to him using the licence details you have provided if you can't contact him.
Im from victoria, I'll look into it. This looks like a good way to go.
It's VCAT in Vic, and as others have told you, proving he owes you the money isn't your biggest problem, collecting it is.
VCAT will issue them an order to pay, then you need it served and the hard bit, ENFORCED. You will pay more than $1200 to have your order enforced by the sheriff and that's assuming the sheriff ever gets to your civil enforcement order.
The court will not forcibly summon him unless it's a criminal charge, but without him there, a judge will likely issue the order to pay on your evidence (assuming you have some sort of evidence)
The guy will just ignore it and hope it goes away, or he would have paid you by now or offered a settlement.
Trust me, put this behind you and be thankful it wasn't $12,000 or $120,000 you got ripped. $1200 for a lesson in the shitty convoluted Victorian legal system is pretty cheap.
Source: I have been in your shoes and did everything in my power to recoup the money, and failed (in Vic).
Have a chat to a lawyer first, many have a short and free consultation, and they will suggest the best way to approach the issue.
4 years seems like a long time to wait before doing anything about it though IMO.
Thanks for the suggestion. I had contact with him still early last year and then he moved out, but since I was in my last year of Uni I left it alone for a while
Should always claim first, and then - if you're feeling nice - put off enforcement for later.
What took you so long?
Biggest question is if you can still find him.
Next question is if he's got any assets or income (centrelink doesn't count).
If it's no to any of these questions, your money is better spent on bikies than on lawyers.
4 years is a looooong time. The guy probably thinks you don't really care nor will do anything about it, half true at least for 4 years.
he has yet to pay. I have details of his license, but he has moved out and changed his number.
It sounds like this person has done a runner which they may do again and again until they're stopped.
Bit late
Bikies…
Same thing happened to me around 10 years ago (I have 3rd party property only on a work van). I went to magistrates court many times and the guy just never made any payments. He was arrested several times for breaching the court order but just kept not paying and after many court appearances for non payment I simply gave up. Apparently you are entitled to accrue interest once you have an order in your favour. Then once your friend has assets you can apply for them to be ceased to settle your debt.
I went to magistrates court many times and the guy just never made any payments
So how much did all this end up costing you?
Apparently you are entitled to accrue interest once you have an order in your favour.
If they're not paying, you can add all the interest in the world, it won't matter.
The local council took me to court for a judgegment when I made an arrangement to repay rates and ended up $5 short after 20 weeks (I paid all rates owing minus $5, but refused to pay the $900 legal fees they added on for sending a reminder letter). The Sheriff looked around my house, looked at my car, and asked me if I was willing to make a payment arrangement. I said not in this lifetime. He shrugged and left
Would getting legal help be of any use at this point?
You're going to end up spending more than $1200 in chasing this person for the money/making them pay.
Incase maths your best subject, I'll be blunt, if the money you spend on legal fees is more than the money you'll get back, then don't do it.
In your case, it sounds like you will. So just move on and put it down as young and stupid times as you said, and get insurance!!!
VCAT is the cheapest option. But as previously advised, need to get sheriff to enforce order. I have used them before and not a great process. Parties can delay case and waste alot of time and making you go to multiple hearings. The time and money to chase this would not be worth it, especially if the party has no assets. In legal terms $1200 is not worth chasing, even though it is alot of money to most people. Reason why you need insurance.
Name and shame on social media?
Let that be a $1200 lesson for you. Pretty cheap in today's money!
Technically it was $1,200 in 2014 money…
Imagine if that $1200 went on bitcoin in 2014…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin#/media/Fi…
Hire The Punisher, he just lost his job at Netflix.
Similar situation happened to me. After about 6 months of calling him and sent a letter of demand and still no response, i took him to a local court. I represented myself. He turned up that day and judge gave me an option of repossess his car to recover my money or put him on a payment plan. Decided to give him a chance and choose payment of $100 per month.
He paid for the 1 couple of months and never saw him again. Took him to court again and this time he didn't turn up. The judge sent the bailiff after him but could not find him for about 6 weeks. Then the judge issued a warrant for his arrest and he still couldn't be found. His mother say he was in jail apparently.
Called up the court and they told there is nothing much they can do if he cannot be found but there was still a warrant for his arrest. I asked myself did i make the right choice by pursing it or should i have let it go in the beginning as i have wasted my time and about $400 by pursuing it in court. I decided to forget about it and move on.
Anyway about one and a half years later i got a call and it wasn't from the court but from the guy crashed into me. He wanted to settle the payment. He paid me everything include all court cost plus interest. I guess i am one of the lucky one.
His drug supplier didn't want him on the street dealing with an open arrest warrant
Yeah, ultimately actually getting the money out of him is going to be tricky, well that's probably putting it mildly, usually getting money out of people who don't actually want to pay you is a really long, and annoying process.
Your best bet, IMO, is to forget the money, move on, and always get yourself insured from now on. The insurance companies have a lot more power, and a lot more intimidation factor to chase down bad debtors than Joe Public does, unfortunately.
Statue of limitations.
Monolith of responsibility > Statue of limitations
move on