Should I appeal court decision
I was in court last week as a result of my bike accident. I was claiming against a car driver for injuries caused in the accident but I lost my case. My brother said I could appeal the court’s decision and have a retrial. Basically the accident involved the car driver turning in front of me without warning. The judge’s decision was fully in favour of the car driver. I believe that the judge misunderstood my evidence that I had given. Please let me know if I can and should appeal.
Brian Handy, by e-mail
Answer
There is a time limit to lodge the appeal of 21 days from the decision of the court. To succeed you will need to show that the judge was plainly wrong in law or fact (and this had a bearing or the result) or erred seriously in his judgment – in other words that no reasonable judge would have found as he did. The most sensible approach would be for your barrister who represented you to write an urgent 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 – you don’t say how badly injured you were. 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.
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