Accident - automatism

[Berta Mason]

I was hit and thrown 10 ft. by a reversing car some weeks ago. My solicitor has written to me to say that I should be able to recover compensation unless it can be shown that the driver lost consciousness just before colliding with me because in that case, he has a defence of automatism. Now if he says so surely he must be right but it does not agree with what I understood. Firstly I thought automatism was a criminal defence whereas this is a civil claim. Secondly I thought it would be foreseeable that an elderly driver could be taken ill at the wheel � isn't this what insurance is for after all? I would be grateful if someone with legal training could clarify this for me. Thank you.

[JanineG]

From the sound of it, you know more than your Solicitor!

I am a PI Solicitor and have to say that if a client of mine had been knocked over by a reversing vehicle, it would not occur to me to even think about the driver having lost consciousness before impact - that would be something for the Third Party's Insurers or Solicitors to raise in any event. Is there anything in the instructions you've given your Solicitor about the state on the driver?

(without the intention of sounding quite patronising toward your Solicitor, perhaps a quick enquiry to check on their status would be useful, the advice you've been given sounds very much as though they don't have much experience of dealing with claims of this nature)

[Berta Mason]

Hello JanineG, thank you very much for your reply. As you can imagine it would be awkward to enquire about the fee earner�s qualified status. (I should not have used the word �solicitor� in my previous post). I have known the firm for years as I am their p/t loose leaf updater, and whilst I do not know his qualifications, I am aware he works under the supervision of a senior Partner who is definitely qualified, and a member of APIL and MASS. We do not yet know whether the driver was ill or drunk or what else when he lost control as we have been unable to contact his insurers because he has not yet produced his insurance documents to the Police. I have been chasing the police; they told me they have written to him twice, the second time was a week ago and they were giving him three weeks to respond� so I have to wait.

[JanineG]

If you have his Vehicle Registration Number your Solicitor should be able to carry out a search of the Motor Insurance Database (a MIDIS search) to find out whether there was insurance on the vehicle at the date of the accident and, if so, with which Insurers and a Policy number etc.