My daughter was driving her husband's car in a single track section of a country lane when an oncoming car drove straight in to her head-on instead of waiting at a wide part of the road for her to exit the restriction. Her LandRover Discovery, was written off. She was heavily pregnant at the time. When the police arrived the experienced traffic officer asked where the drivers were. My daughter was in the ambulance. He then said he wanted to speak to the other driver. When he returned he told me that the other driver had agreed to accept a police caution in preference to a prosecution for driving without due care. The police did not even question my daughter regarding the incident.

I took many photographs at the scene and then my daughter took out a Small Claims County Court Summons via Money Claim Online against the other driver. She notified her insurer and that she was proceeding against the other driver on her own. The other driver's insurance company, and their solicitors, tried every way possible to frighten my daughter back to her insurers. We were even made to attend Haywards Heath County Court for a lecture from the judge on the dangers of a failed action. We were holding out for the other side to accept 100 per cent liability. They offered 60 per cent, then counter-claimed, in spite of the fact that we had obtained a statement from the police officer supporting my daughter's case, and had been supplied a copy of the official caution sent to the other driver.

When the other side was finally forced to provide evidence for the counter-claim we sent a document of photographs (defence of the counter claim) of the scene supporting our view that the other driver had failed to take reasonable care. Two days after a second appearance at Haywards Heath, with a different judge the other driver accepted full liability, paid the full claim for my daughter's vehicle and her costs, which were minimal because she did not employ a solicitor. The whole process took just over twelve months.

I think the point that everyone forgets is that insurers and solicitors are simply agents of the drivers involved and the claim is between the drivers and other injured parties, not between insurance companies. If more people realised this and stuck out for a proper outcome the drivers who cause accidents would bear the full cost of their actions. My daughter was 24, the other driver was in his forties. Had she failed to hold her ground she would have been classed as another careless young driver - and her premiums increased as a result!