Advice to deal with troublesome member of the public

PaulWrightyThen

IOTM Winner
Hi guys.

I'd like some 'legal' advice. Obviously, this is just to gauge feeling and I won't take any advice as binding.

So, I was on a shoot and a gentleman at the location claimed a member of the crew dinged his car. The crew all checked their cars. No damage. He said his car was fine at 9.30am. All the crew were in the building by 9. He claims the damage happened after that. He is now talking about an insurance claim. Does anyone think he has a case,? He has no evidence and this was several weeks ago. I think he's of the opinion we are a massive production with tonnes of cash. We are anything but.

Not really sure what to do.

Any help would be amazing. Cheers.
 
Did a happen in a place you were permitted to use with your own production insurance?
 
I would guess any insurance claim would be against a particular driver, so has he given any indication of precisely whose car was involved? Is there any CCTV in the area?

I suspect you're probably right, and he's just hoping you'll pay to fix what is more than likely the result of his kid's careless driving or something, just to save the aggro.
 
Not sure what your insurance covered, cars outside the shooting area, etc.

Insurance companies have investigators, and there's no way to tell if he's lying or not, if your short term covers it I'd go through them, that's what it's for. Crazy things happen on shoots, gotta be covered and (hopefully) you were.
 
We also have public liability insurance. I've requested legal advice through a free 'clinic' so we shall see what happens. Cheers for your thoughts chums.

Why do people 'people'?
 
Is there a police report?
This would be a matter for the civil courts in which case he would have to prove someone from the production dinged his car with evidence or an eye witness, not just "the ding wasn't there, then it was."
You could ask for his proof to avoid court, if he has none, you could say "sue me." If he does, settle or go through insurance if it's covered.
 
Man has car.
Claims it was alright at 9:30.
Sees damage later.
Thinks it must have been your crew.

Poor case.

He could as well blame full moon.
He seems to tie two seperate events together to make sense of his reality or to attempt to have his damage fixed at your expense.
 
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