Bike v cycle: Can I appeal the decision?

An MCN reader was deciding whether to appeal a case, after an accident with a cyclist didn’t play to his favour.

The anonymous reader told us:

“I was involved in a motorcycle versus pedal cycle accident where the cyclist turned in front of my bike without warning. The case went to court and the evidence appeared to go very much in my favour. However, despite my barrister thinking we had won the case, the judge’s decision was fully in favour of the cyclist!

“I believe that the judge misquoted evidence I had given. Is there anything I can do as I think it unlikely my current insurance company would wish to fund an appeal, despite being quite good up to now.“

“A cyclist rode in front of my motorbike, and I got blamed!”

 

Andrew Campbell, Solicitor and author of the MCN Law column, says

There is a 21-day time limit to lodge an appeal after a court has made its decision. To succeed you will need to show that the judge was plain wrong in law or fact (and this had a bearing on the result) or erred seriously in his judgment – in other words no reasonable judge would have found as he did.

The most sensible approach would be for your barrister to write a short opinion on the prospects of a successful appeal and ask your legal expenses insurer to fund it.

They may not due to proportionality (costs versus benefit to be derived) if the case is only of modest value. If the insurer does not agree to fund it then your other option is to pay privately. Again, you may feel proportionality will rule this option out.

An appeal could cost you, say, £10,000 in fees, although the precise amount will depend on the amount of time spent as in a case like this, lawyers would charge at an hourly rate rather than work on a fixed fee basis.

Do you have anything you’d like to ask us? Email advice@motorcyclenews.com with your question and we’ll try to solve your problem.

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