What is the appropriate way to initiate a money claim if the defendant will not provide an address?

Question

Say Alice was in an accident with Bob that was 100% Bobs fault. At the scene email addresses and vehicle registration number plates were exchanged, and in later email exchanges the insurance details were exchanged. However Bob refused to provide their physical address, despite multiple requests including links to the government website detailing this requirement, apparently as a result of advice from their insurance company. After a month of exchanging out of court settlement offers with the insurance company Alice wants to initiate a court claim for money for the cost of the vehicle. However this seems to require "a postal address in England or Wales". What is the best course of action for Alice in this situation? Options appear to include:

• Use the vehicle registration number plate to request information about a vehicles registered keeper from DVLA.
  • Pro: Only costs £2-50, will not obviously cause problems for the defendant
  • Con: Likely to take some time, possible to cause problems for the defendant
• Report the lack of provision of address to police
  • Pro: No cost to claimant
  • Con: Likely to take some time, may well cause problems for the defendant
• Use the insurance company address in the form
  • Pro: Easy
  • Con: Probably would not work (as I understand it, the claimant has no relationship with the insurance company, only the actual driver)
• Make a claim using a paper form, either N1 or N510
  • I am not sure of the consequences of this, but likely higher fees and more time, possible to cause problems for the defendant

This must happen quite frequently, what is the usual and/or best response in this situation? Alice would like to avoid problems for Bob, as it appears they have been poorly advised by their insurance company as to their responsibilities. Mostly Alice cares about the easiest and cheapest solution.

Answer 1

Use the vehicle registration number plate to request information about a vehicles registered keeper from DVLA.

Since setting this in motion doesn't adversely affect anything else it's worth doing immediately. It might turn out to be unnecessary but given the glacial speed that DVLA operate at it's better to get the wheels in motion sooner rather than later.

Report the lack of provision of address to police

Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 has this to say on the subject:

The driver of the mechanically propelled vehicle must stop and, if required to do so by any person having reasonable grounds for so requiring, give his name and address and also the name and address of the owner and the identification marks of the vehicle.

So assuming Bob was driving a vehicle involved in an accident with Alice's vehicle, thus Alice is someone "having reasonable grounds" for requiring Bob's name (and crucially in this case address). Failing that they must report the accident to the Police (either directly to a Constable, at a police station or via 101) and provide these details. If they don't do either of these things then it's a criminal offence and one that can carry quite severe penalties

Since Bob hasn't provided their address then Alice can ring 101, and giving the details of the accident (date & time, registration numbers of the vehicles etc) ask if the required info has been provided to them. If Bob has done what the law requires of them then the Police can furnish the details to Alice and she can then file the necessary paperwork.

On the other hand if Bob hasn't done this.. well, in that case Bob's been playing stupid games and we all know what prizes that wins you.

NB: I'd be extremely surprised if the insurer was actually advising Bob to withhold their address, given it's in direct contravention of the law for them to do so and, morally grey as some players in the insurance industry might be at times they're usually smarter than to go around advising their clients to break the law.

Use the insurance company address in the form

This probably won't work - the insurance company are not who Alice is suing and that might complicate matters. From experience the court claim has to be made against the other driver not their insurer - even where it's the insurer who handles/responds to the suit they're doing so on behalf of their customer not as themselves.

Make a claim using a paper form, either N1 or N510

I don't think is applicable here - this is intended for when the defendant's address is outside England & Wales not where you don't know their address.

Answer 2

All of the above

When you initiate a legal claim, you don’t screw around. You blow your opponent out of the water.

No mercy. No wiggle room.