I got in a fairly major car accident and I'm being sued?

[Dragnov]

Well to make a long story short, I got in a fairly major car accident nearly a year ago. Both cars were totaled, but not one was seriously injured, bleeding, crippled, or anything of that sort. I was pretty much perfectly fine just dazed, and the other person I hit was really shooken up but she got out of the car on her own standing up and then proceeded to sit down. I was really sorry and scared sh1tless because never really got into a major car accident and I was still dazed and wondering WTF happened. I mean an ambulance came and took her eventually... I'm guessing just to make sure wasn't injured or head trauma or something, but I mean she was walking and moving so I didn't think anythign serious happened. I'm covered with full insurance and all so I thought that was that... lost the car (front end was smashed in, and insurance took it), and the other lady's car was pretty mcuh totalled from what I remember. (back end was smashed in.. it was a really old POS 198*'s car... you know those brownish grey, tinnish, small 4 door cars).

So I thought that was that, but I get a letter few months later and I find out that I'm being freakin sued!!! WTF? I mean I dind't think much of the matter... insurance would take care of this matter... I mean it was my fault and I'm assuming inusrance just pays for her. So I have to go talk to some attorneys soon (it's been nearly a year now), and I'm still confused.

You sue people after an auto-accident? I always thought insurance covered this stuff and that was that. Fill out a few papers/forms, etc. and begone with it and forking over the money for higher rates. Is she just being a greedy b1tch and tryign to get more money or something? I was never notifed that she was injured or required hospitalization or anything of that sort.

 

[Jugernot]

I too got into a bad accident in 1999 and both vehicles were totalled. I had some pretty substantial injuries (Broken tail bone, 4 ribs, collar bone, and fractured leg) and the guy I slid into had a broken foot. As I was a minor at the time, my parents later told me that the person I hit (a state trooper driving his patrol car) was suing us. Insurance company said "Don't worry about it, we'll take care of everything. You won't be out a penny!"

It was a year until we heard the lawsuit was thrown out.

Perhaps, you could be just as lucky?

Jugs

 

[xuanman]

Sorry about your situation. It's a car accident, so her argument will be something along the lines that your negligence (whether true or not) was a substantial cause of the accident. Call your insurance company. Call a lawyer. It'll probably all settle. Good luck!

 

[wellerdball]

My mom was driving to work one day and a woman speaking on a cell phone ran a red light in a old mercedes benz she left my mother crippled since then now i have to see my own mother naked everyday day and have have to help her use the restoom.Ive seen her get worse and worse over the months my mom never got any money we are many thousand in debt we called many doctors and lawyers they laughed us off saying she had leu gerricks disease and it was a coincidence that she got leu gerrikcs around the same time as the car accident.in the end i missed 8 months of school ,lost out 80 percent payed off house,her buissness,our car and all our belongings.We had to move in with my aunt with her husband and son.I hope that if you were the cause of the accident it wasnt out of neglegence because i have no pity for you.

 

[THELAIR]

That sounds exactly like what happened to me.

I ran a stop sign (was obscured) but insurance still has to find someone at fault so I got hit with the burden on that one. The person i hit appeared fine and refused treatment by the ambulance and walked home on his own accord. the police report clearly indicates no one was injured and no one was looked at by EMT or transported to the hospital.

I havn't been sued, but I was expecting it. My only saving grace would be to sue the owners of the vehicle that obstructed the stop sign. I have 5 people who can attest that hte stop sign was completly obscured.

I still got a ticket for 55 bucks for running it though :\ the cops said is hould have seen the other stop sign across the street on the other side, facing the other direction.

ahh well...

insurance is 1,800 a year for a 1987 volvo!

 

[Dragnov]

Just some additions.

My insurance company has been taking care of it. They hired some lawyers and stuff and I've been having to fill out these forms and answer questions for them. Don't really know whats happening still though. I don't get what they are suing over... in fact, I dont believe I've been told yet. All I get is #### vs. #### forms from my insurance company hired lawyers.

Thats a sad story wellerdball. Sorry to hear that, but the lady walked out of the car on her own and was standing up for a while and then proceeded to sit down. She wasn't bleeding or anything of that sort, and I was never notified if anythign else happened to her physically or became mentally unstable and stuff.

So Im really wondering what I'm being sued over and does she have any merit? I admit it was my fault, I'm guessing I fell asleep at the wheel because I don't remember the accident (just before and after). Yes, I know I'm stupid for falling asleep and I take guilt in it. As I said I was really scared and sad that I coudl've taken a life possibly. I was a bit tired, but no where near exhaustian or thinking I would fall asleep.

 

[wellerdball]

my mom walked after being in bed for 4 days but littl by little the damage caught up with her the worst park is she had a great sum of money in the car because she intended on paying some bills well when people rushed the car accident scene someone stole all of it

 

[SOSTrooper]

It depends on your insurance company. If you have All-State, then their problem is they're really really uptight about giving extra money to pay for the damage you have caused. For instance, her car probably worth about $2000 and if she claimed minor injury and a simple hospital visit then it'll be anohter $4000 or so. All-State usually only pays the $2000 damage and they like to investigate on the medical bill. In a big accident like yours, they may very well just pay the $4000 or so to the lady you hit. But look at it this way, she's only getting $6000 and she probably lost her car in that process. She probably demanded more money, but your insurance company wouldnt pay more, so she sues. A car rear ended me like 5 yrs ago and that guy had All State insurance, they only paid $900 for the damage on my car, and after nearly 2 years of court battle on my medical bill, they only paid me $750 for my treatment. You should look into why she's suing you, but getting a lawyer and contacting your insurance company is a must.

 

[xuanman]

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK
Just some additions.

My insurance company has been taking care of it. They hired some lawyers and stuff and I've been having to fill out these forms and answer questions for them. Don't really know whats happening still though. I don't get what they are suing over... in fact, I dont believe I've been told yet. All I get is #### vs. #### forms from my insurance company hired lawyers.

Thats a sad story wellerdball. Sorry to hear that, but the lady walked out of the car on her own and was standing up for a while and then proceeded to sit down. She wasn't bleeding or anything of that sort, and I was never notified if anythign else happened to her physically or became mentally unstable and stuff.

So Im really wondering what I'm being sued over and does she have any merit? I admit it was my fault, I'm guessing I fell asleep at the wheel because I don't remember the accident (just before and after). Yes, I know I'm stupid for falling asleep and I take guilt in it. As I said I was really scared and sad that I coudl've taken a life possibly. I was a bit tired, but no where near exhaustian or thinking I would fall asleep.

it sounds like the two insurances companies will settle the issue. since you're admitting that it was your fight, your insurance company will probably increase your premiums. other than that, everything should be fine. most important thing is that you and the person from the accident are ok.

 

[CJZ]

Same thing happened to my brother. The insurance company took care of it and settled it outside of court. The only thing my brother had to do was fill out forms and go to a deposition.

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: CJZ
Same thing happened to my brother. The insurance company took care of it and settled it outside of court. The only thing my brother had to do was fill out forms and go to a deposition.

Hmm, okay thats sounds good to hear. I've filled out some forms and I'm headed to a deposition in like a month. Hopefully, all will be over them. It's a strange feeling knowing that you're being "sued".

 

[silverpig]

They don't actually sue you personally, they sue the insurance company. However, if you caused $1.5 million in damages, and your insurance only covers you up to $1 million, you're out the extra $500 000.

I know a woman who let her son borrow her car. He picked up his friends and then decided to see how fast the car could go. He lost control, flew into a ditch, totalled the car, and injured everyone in it (including his sister). Everyone in the car (except the driver) is now suing the woman I know because the insurance is in her name. She said they're suing for $1.5 million total (one girl broke her back...), and she's only covered for up to $1 million.

 

[frizzlefry]

I got into a smaller accident. Nothing was totalled. But the woman that eventually sued me also was attempting to sue my father as the owner of the vehicle. Whatever crack pot lawyer she had gotten made several mistakes along the line.

Well i fell alseep at the wheel and caused a 3 car accident in traffic. It was hot and I just fell asleep... rolled into the woman at about 5mph and then she in turn hit the person in front. Exchanging information, she had asked what insurance company I had, and when I mentioned it she said "wow, i hear they pay really well." This was one of her pitfalls. The other party only had some minor body damage and let our insurance company settle them out but they were later called on to testify that the woman i hit had made that statement.

So I figured, as you did that everything was settled. Then I hear that I'm being sued. I never received anything about it. That's because the retard lawyer that she had kept delivering it to the wrong address. Anyways, my insurance company gets a copy and calls me up on it. They said they would hire the lawyer and handle everything.

My father at this time was concerned because she was looking for $80K. I told him not to worry about it and I would take care of it. Well it eventually gets to court about a year later, I never had to go in, because my wonderful lawyers that the insurance company had hired had found a flaw in the lawsuit. Her lawyer had submitted the suit in the wrong court, which only allowed max damages of $5K. She had already received $8K in compensation from my insurance company. My lawyer calls me up later that day saying the judge was in hysterics that this crack pot lawyer filed in the wrong court and threw it out as frivolous.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK
lways th
You sue people after an auto-accident?

Ah, yes - that's what our society has turn into: one big lawsuit-happy, suing machine. Have you ever seen all of those day-time commercials put on TV by those "ambulance-chasing" lawyers? They're making direct pitches to people like you had your accident with. Unfortunately, it appears that they took the bait and found an opportunity to get you/your insurance company to provide them with some reimbursement.

My niece had this same problem where she had an accident about a year ago. Her trial was about 3 weeks ago in Florida. Here's a quick synopsis of the events:

- My niece caused the accident (or, rather was at fault) for an event that happened a year ago.
- The lady she hit was elderly, but the situation appeared to be driven by her children's desire for money - they pushed her to sue my niece.
- My niece's insurance company wanted to settle prior to the trial for $250,000.
- The plaintiff rejected the offer to settle and pushed on with the trial - seeking $1,000,000 instead.
- Finally, the judge ruled for the plaintiff in the amount of $210,000.

Yes, the judge awarded the greedy bastages even *less* money than they would have received had they settled out of court a couple of months before even having to go through the whole messy trial issue.

I would have loved to have been in the courtroom to see the look on their faces whe the judge awarded the payment.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: wje

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK
lways th
You sue people after an auto-accident?

Ah, yes - that's what our society has turn into: one big lawsuit-happy, suing machine. Have you ever seen all of those day-time commercials put on TV by those "ambulance-chasing" lawyers? They're making direct pitches to people like you had your accident with. Unfortunately, it appears that they took the bait and found an opportunity to get you/your insurance company to provide them with some reimbursement.

My niece had this same problem where she had an accident about a year ago. Her trial was about 3 weeks ago in Florida. Here's a quick synopsis of the events:

- My niece caused the accident (or, rather was at fault) for an event that happened a year ago.
- The lady she hit was elderly, but the situation appeared to be driven by her children's desire for money - they pushed her to sue my niece.
- My niece's insurance company wanted to settle prior to the trial for $250,000.
- The plaintiff rejected the offer to settle and pushed on with the trial - seeking $1,000,000 instead.
- Finally, the judge ruled for the plaintiff in the amount of $210,000.

Yes, the judge awarded the greedy bastages even *less* money than they would have received had they settled out of court a couple of months before even having to go through the whole messy trial issue.

I would have loved to have been in the courtroom to see the look on their faces whe the judge awarded the payment.

As if $210 grand is a small chunk of change?

An accident is an accident. Unless it can be proven that there was a case of negligence or otherwise breaking the law in some significant way, people should be more forgiving. I understand it's a big pain to have to replace your vehicle and all, but the defendent has to do that too, it's not like they wanted it to happen.

My sister, and father (since she's on the family policy), is being sued right now for the same circumstances. The insurance co is taking care of it so far...

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: wje

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK
lways th
You sue people after an auto-accident?

Ah, yes - that's what our society has turn into: one big lawsuit-happy, suing machine. Have you ever seen all of those day-time commercials put on TV by those "ambulance-chasing" lawyers? They're making direct pitches to people like you had your accident with. Unfortunately, it appears that they took the bait and found an opportunity to get you/your insurance company to provide them with some reimbursement.

My niece had this same problem where she had an accident about a year ago. Her trial was about 3 weeks ago in Florida. Here's a quick synopsis of the events:

- My niece caused the accident (or, rather was at fault) for an event that happened a year ago.
- The lady she hit was elderly, but the situation appeared to be driven by her children's desire for money - they pushed her to sue my niece.
- My niece's insurance company wanted to settle prior to the trial for $250,000.
- The plaintiff rejected the offer to settle and pushed on with the trial - seeking $1,000,000 instead.
- Finally, the judge ruled for the plaintiff in the amount of $210,000.

Yes, the judge awarded the greedy bastages even *less* money than they would have received had they settled out of court a couple of months before even having to go through the whole messy trial issue.

I would have loved to have been in the courtroom to see the look on their faces whe the judge awarded the payment.

On the other hand, 210k isn't a small chunk of cash... I'm sure they were upset about losing $40,000.. But being awarded 210,000 probably overran that a little.

 

[yellowperil]

Sorry to hear about your situation Gr1mL0cK. About the part about her walking around, there are some injuries (like whiplash for example) where the pain doesn't set in until a day or even days later. If she still has permanent injuries after a period of maximum recovery (i.e., won't heal anymore) I believe she can sue for those.

 

[yellowperil]

Originally posted by: wje

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK
lways th
You sue people after an auto-accident?

Ah, yes - that's what our society has turn into: one big lawsuit-happy, suing machine. Have you ever seen all of those day-time commercials put on TV by those "ambulance-chasing" lawyers? They're making direct pitches to people like you had your accident with. Unfortunately, it appears that they took the bait and found an opportunity to get you/your insurance company to provide them with some reimbursement.

My niece had this same problem where she had an accident about a year ago. Her trial was about 3 weeks ago in Florida. Here's a quick synopsis of the events:

- My niece caused the accident (or, rather was at fault) for an event that happened a year ago.
- The lady she hit was elderly, but the situation appeared to be driven by her children's desire for money - they pushed her to sue my niece.
- My niece's insurance company wanted to settle prior to the trial for $250,000.
- The plaintiff rejected the offer to settle and pushed on with the trial - seeking $1,000,000 instead.
- Finally, the judge ruled for the plaintiff in the amount of $210,000.

Yes, the judge awarded the greedy bastages even *less* money than they would have received had they settled out of court a couple of months before even having to go through the whole messy trial issue.

I would have loved to have been in the courtroom to see the look on their faces whe the judge awarded the payment.

Did the lady suffer injury? A $250K settlement offer, by an insurance company no less, seems to indicate to me that there were some substantial injuries involved. In that case, I don't think it's greedy to sue (the $1M maybe).

 

[tcsenter]

Thats a sad story wellerdball. Sorry to hear that, but the lady walked out of the car on her own and was standing up for a while and then proceeded to sit down. She wasn't bleeding or anything of that sort, and I was never notified if anythign else happened to her physically or became mentally unstable and stuff.

That really has no bearing, people can walk around with internal injuries or neck fractures and not know it. I worked with a guy whose son fell off his bike or something, can't remember now what it was, but he fell on his head, really cranking his neck hard. After a few minutes, he seemed fine and didn't want to see a doctor. A week later he began complaining that the soreness and stiffness in his neck was getting worse, not better.

So they took him for X-rays and he had a broken neck, subluxation of his cervical vertebrae and a potentially unstable one at that. He was in surgery hours later. He had even played in a game of soccer a couple days after the accident. The surgeon said if he had been hit or impacted in just the right way so as to make that fracture shift he would be dead or paralyzed from the neck down.

Its uncommon, but by no means is it rare.

 

[Windogg]

I think you'll be fine. Those TV lawyers/ambulance chasers are just looking to score a quick buck at your expense. Your insurance company would take care of things.

Same thing happened to me a few years back but in my case it was not my fault. Some idiot ran a red light in a 83 Corolla and I t-boned them in a 97 Land Cruiser. Needless to say I didn't lose. A few months later the passenger tries to sue me for $1 million. I turned it over to the insurance company and never heard anything of the matter again. Never had to meet a lawyer, give a deposition, or goto court. I guess it got thrown out because my premiums never increased nor did anything related to the matter showed up on my driving record.

Hope things work out.

 

[Kev]

My sister was in an "accident" where she nudged the car in front of her after letting go of the brake while stopped at a light. There was no damage to either car, the paint wasn't even chipped. Then a few days later, my parents are being sued. I knew the guy didn't stand a chance, but it was just so frivilous that I wanted to go bash his face in for wasting my parents' time.

 

[apoppin]

It could be that you are UNDER-insured.

Let me give you the other side of the coin: I was hit from behind by a city bus at a red light about six years ago. Whiplash spinal injuries were the result and I still have some pain and disabily. Fortunately it was a bus with an "unlimited' policy (also unfortunately that it was a BIG bus). If I was hit by a typical car with similar injuries, the average policy tops out at $35,000. Letsee, my meds came to nearly that . . . add in the Lawyer's cut and I would have come out with a BIG NEGATIVE (and would have to file personal bankruptcy for the rest of the meds).

As it was, I just made out OK.

If the lady you injured is not getting ENOUGH from your Insurance Co then she has to sue YOU to get the balance.
Your insurance will be able to help you . . . but you also have to count if you are worth suing (do you have "assets"?).

Lesson: Always carry plenty of insurance or don't cause a crash.

 

[Bleep]

However, if you caused $1.5 million in damages, and your insurance only covers you up to $1 million, you're out the extra $500 000.

I do not think that you can find a case in law that will confirm this statement.
What happens is that the Atty for the Plaintiff will make a offer in settelment for the value of the polocy and if the insurance co refuses the offer of settlement and the trial awards more than the value of the polocy the insurance co has to pay the entire amount of the award.

Bleep

 

[Codewiz]

Walking around after an accident MEANS NOTHING as already stated.

A guy when I was in High School had a really bad wreck. He hit a tree at like 70MPH. He got out of the car and walked around after the accident. He seemed ok. He layed down waiting for the police to arrive and never moved again. He is paralysed from the neck down.

Just think of that. You have an accident and are able to walk around then 10 minutes later you find you will never walk again.

 

[Cyberian]

- The plaintiff rejected the offer to settle and pushed on with the trial - seeking $1,000,000 instead.

I think that if the suit is for a million $ or more, the insurance company has to put that amount in escrow. This usually tends to make them settle sooner so as not to lose the interest on that amount.