“Summons To Witness”

I have received 2 pieces of paper on the door of my home within the last week. Looks like I am being summons to witness for an accident where the other driver was at fault last year. (He hit me and was charged at the scene).

I'm just wondering if anyone knows how many attempts they will make to serve me, or if they will keep trying until they do ?

Thanks.

They will keep trying. If they believe you are intentionally avoiding them they can get an arrest warrant. Not saying they will but you may as well accept the subpoena.

That link seems a bit harsh for a witness, it looks like that is for criminal court. Seems a bit overboard for a traffic ticket that the other driver was 100% at fault for. They reduced his fine at the scene, and he is still fighting it, really just seems like a waste of everyone's time over a $150 fine. Do you have any idea what happens at the court, what do they ask me and the other people that were in the car ? Is this a full out trial, that takes all day ?

MIKE86 wrote:Seems a bit overboard for a traffic ticket that the other driver was 100% at fault for. They reduced his fine at the scene, and he is still fighting it, really just seems like a waste of everyone's time over a $150 fine.

If you don't show up, they'll likely drop the charge completely. His $150 fine goes to $0 and more importantly, he'll avoid having a conviction. Without the conviction he'll avoid a possible surcharge by his insurance provider (e.g. 5%). If he's convicted again of other offense (e.g. speeding 10km), the surcharge will likely increase with a second conviction.

In the long run, it may save him several hundreds of dollars if not more.

MIKE86 wrote:Do you have any idea what happens at the court, what do they ask me and the other people that were in the car ? Is this a full out trial, that takes all day ?

It wont take all day, but it's not something you can do during your lunch break.

He may not even go to trial. He might be counting on you not showing up. He can always just take his reduced fine and go home.

One thing you can not be sure of is how the insurance companies will look at this.

If he was charged, he was at fault according to police, thus your insurance rate is not affected and his is.

However, if you do not show up and the charges are dropped, the insurance company may decide that the fault was 50/50 and both drivers are faced with a rate increase.

When it comes to insurance companies, they never loose out, they will recover the claim that was paid out somewhere

The way insurance is assigned is laid out so I doubt a non conviction would alter the assigning of blame

Observer135 wrote:One thing you can not be sure of is how the insurance companies will look at this.

If he was charged, he was at fault according to police, thus your insurance rate is not affected and his is.

However, if you do not show up and the charges are dropped, the insurance company may decide that the fault was 50/50 and both drivers are faced with a rate increase.

When it comes to insurance companies, they never loose out, they will recover the claim that was paid out somewhere

Insurance providers use the Fault Determination Rules to deem who is responsible for what. What happens between your provider and what happens at trial are somewhat independent of each other. It's not going to change whether or not someone doesn't show up to their trial. If he was deemed 100% at fault before the trial, he'll still be 100% at fault afterwords.