The correspondence from EH and others recently is a very real worry to anyone who has been blamed for a traffic accident, no matter how slight. It seems surprising that EH's insurers did not contest, as surely it would be in their interest. By not doing so they are only encouraging further spurious claims.

You recommend getting 'proper' legal protection insurance, so are you implying that the LPI offered by car insurance companies as an extra is no good? Presumably such cover would enable one to fight spurious claims that have been rejected by the car insurer, although it would not have helped EH as he was not made aware of the claim. Perhaps then, if EH had had LPI with his insurer, it would have been obliged to notify him.