Seriously???

Extremely helpful. Take on board what @Zhed46 says, everybody.

To the £1,350 brief fee you have to add the cost to the County Court of processing and deciding the case, and the cost to the other side of pursuing the claim, as well as everyone travelling to court, days off work etc. The real total cost of arguing about £175 might have come to £5,000. On the face of it, madness. And if the case gets appealed to the higher courts, even more mad.

Then again, there something highly objectionable about letting wrongdoers get away with it scot free; there is some moral value in pursuing a claim regardless of how disproportionate the cost might be. Exercise of judgment is required, and not only by the judge.

 

Whoa. Easy tiger. Very very bad idea.

Having an accident does not constitute criminal damage. That would make your citizens' arrest a wrongful arrest as the law relating to powers of arrest is much stricter for an ordinary citizen than for a police officer. Broadly speaking, a police officer can arrest someone on the basis of "reasonable suspicion" only, whereas a normal person can't although in any event, as no crime has been committed there wouldn't even be reasonable suspicion in this scenario.

Any wrongful arrest is an assault and false imprisonment, both classified as "trespass to the person" and for any number of reasons you do not want to get sued for either of those things in the civil courts. There's also the distinct possibility of getting punched in the face to consider. Or even if you are not phased by the prospect of that, these things tend to get out of hand and people frequently end up in the criminal courts charged with assault, ABH, GBH or public order offences and the like. The courts would very likely treat this as a road rage incident and just to give you an idea of how seriously they take it, even an innocuous common assault arising out of an incident on the road passes the custody threshold (ie; the court will seriously consider sending that person to prison)

 

Zhed46 Lets say Yev would have just give the cyclist a dig, what would one get for such well mitigated act ?

 

.....otherwise known to lawyers as "Alternative Dispute Resolution" (ADR) and much encouraged by the courts.

 

My missus was sitting in a traffic queue when an old woman pushed a child because they were riding a bike on a pavement. Bike hits wife's car and makes right mess of passenger door.
WTF ???

 

It depends on the precise circumstances and whether any injury was caused. A lot also depends on whether the defendant pleaded guilty or pleaded not guilty but was found guilty after a trial, and/or whether they have any previous for violence.

Here are the sentencing guidelines for assault and related offences, if you're interested: http://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk...ssault_definitive_guideline_-_Crown_Court.pdf

From memory, road rage incidents arent specifically covered in the guideline but there's a Court of Appeal case which predates the guidelines which says that road rage assaults usually pass the custody threshold.

 

All makes complete sense.

So what do we do then? Some twat causes an accident, gives you a dirty look, and then just walks off.

It ain't right...

 

If it's a car or motorbike then failing to stop and provide details where damage or personal injury has been caused is an offence, although I still wouldn't recommend a citizen's arrest because in my professional experience I've never heard about one turning out well. If you can, get the number plate and try to look closely enough at the driver to be able to describe him/her and possibly pick them out on an ID parade and then dial 999.

If it's a bicycle then no offence of failing to stop has been committed as a bicycle isn't a "mechanically propelled vehicle" (Road Traffic Act 1988 s.170(2))

Short answer - take a deep breath and call your insurance company. Or, if you ride with a GoPro then post the footage on YouTube and hope someone IDs the culprit. If they have been daft enough to name themselves like Ronnie P did, then so much the better.

 

Thanks.

Basically fuck all then.

 

Yup. Fraid so. :Bored:

 

I´m really fazed now

 

Ha! I misphrased my faze

 

Always interesting to hear an expert opinion

 

one for fazebook

 

@Zhed46

I was taken to a small claims court by someone who thought I owed them money, a disputed professional fee, and they lost.

I thought the process worked extremely well.

As I said, "how vindictive d'ya feel" and the threat of such action may persuade someone to do the right thing.

Or, as you said, it might not.

But it is an easy, and cheap, process to initiate and it doesn't have to be carried on to the bitter end.

 

I was going to put a don't take my word for it disclaimer but didn't think anyone would anyway. My logic on citizens arrest was it would either have to be leaving the scene, or as that doesn't apply it would be damage. I figured as he had certainly been witness rather than arresting on suspicion or evidence it would apply. We live and learn. Good on him paying up though, assuming he follows through on it.

 

***gin cyclists !! cops gettin toughish on them over here. You wanna see them cutting under buses etc and causing heartache for motorists.


I had a guy rear end me on my tenere while back, i didnt feel it but he was doing over 25 / 30 mph couldnt stop, his head hit the back box. What a tool..traffic heavy etc and car goin left, cyclist well in the wrong.

 

Just going through a faze...