Right2Drive has successfully won a High Court Appeal brought by one of Australia’s largest insurers – IAG.
No longer will motorists have to “make do” in the interests of saving negligent drivers and their insurers money.
If you’re involved in a car accident and you’re in the right, the law is now on your side.
So, what is the story behind the case?
In April and August of 2017, two unrelated customers contacted Right2Drive as they each needed a car as a result of a collision that was not their fault. These customers both needed a temporary replacement vehicle while their vehicle was being repaired. The customers both drove sedans. One drove an Audi and one drove a BMW. We searched our fleet and provided these customers with the closest possible comparable vehicles to the ones that had been damaged. Why? To minimise the inconvenience caused to these customers as a result of another party’s wrongdoing. As the insurer of both at fault parties, IAG refused to meet the costs of hire and maintained that our customers had no entitlement under Australian law to a comparable vehicle. Right2Drive commenced litigation against IAG to recover the costs of hire.
These two Right2Drive proceedings started in the small claims court of NSW and became the subjects of lengthy appeals through the NSW court hierarchy over a period of four years. These appeals were eventually pushed through to our country’s highest court – the High Court of Australia.
The High Court of Australia is presented with over 400 matters a year. Of these matters, only 11.8% are granted special leave to be heard.
In March of this year, Right2Drive found itself to be part of this 11.8% and challenged IAG in the High Court. The four year journey from the NSW local court the High Court has been gruelling and costly, however, we never lost focus of why we pushed these two matters forward and why we would not cower to the demands and bullying tactics of IAG.
On 8 December 2021, after a four year battle, the High Court agreed with us that the two customers who were deprived of their Audi and BMW in 2017 should not have been inconvenienced any further as a result of another party’s wrongdoing.
The High Court found that these customers were entitled to hire a vehicle comparative to their own.
We fought long and hard and we won.
The High Court unanimously agreed with us and the appeals of IAG were dismissed. Right2Drive successfully contributed to a significant change on behalf of the Australian credit hire industry.
The High Court decision is available here.
