being sued

[NewCrew42]

I am currently involved in one of these, I was the 1st car, in 3 car pile up. The 3rd car failed to stop, hit 2nd car and pushed them into me. The 2nd car is suing the 3rd car. State farm(3rd car insurance) is refusing to pay the damages of the 2nd car. Definately the 3rd car is at fault. Luckily, I didn't have any damage. This happened in the spring, we now have a court date for April.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I was sued a few years ago after being involved in a huge major accident. One of the drivers sued all the other drivers for a laundry list of issues he claimed to be having.

I called USAA, mailed them the paperwork, and it went away. Never heard another word from it!

 

[DBL101]

Thought this thread could use some related humor. Here is a joke I came across that seems to fit.

Dwarf Accident

My day started out terribly. I was late for work to begin with, and on my way, I rear-ended the car in front of me. A very angry driver got out, and he happened to be a dwarf! He stormed back to my car, looked up at me and said, "I am NOT happy!"

I said, "Well, then, which one ARE you?"

That's how the fight started...

 

[powellrj]

I am currently involved in one of these, I was the 1st car, in 3 car pile up. The 3rd car failed to stop, hit 2nd car and pushed them into me. The 2nd car is suing the 3rd car. State farm(3rd car insurance) is refusing to pay the damages of the 2nd car. Definately the 3rd car is at fault. Luckily, I didn't have any damage. This happened in the spring, we now have a court date for April.

Thats not what I wanted to read. My DS was the 2nd car in an accident on Monday. We haven't heard anything yet.

 

[Pakey]

We were sued when our youngest son had an accident. It was fairly serious, both cars were totalled and 2 people from the other vehicle were taken by ambulance from the scene. My son was at fault. The driver of the other vehicle could not sue for pain/suffering as she was an unlicensed driver but her passanger did. Insurance company handled everything; the passenger wanted a lot of money, insurance company offered a small settlement, he refused, insurance company said "take us to court" and the guy ended up taking the small settlement. It took so long we had almost forgotten about it when we received notification that it had been settled.

 

[dzneprincess]

I want to thank everyone who took the time to reassure me. It has really helped calm me to see that things will be okay. I also talked to the staefarm claims rep she also told me not let it get me down and that they will fight this to jury if need be.

 

[manning]

My dad was sued about a year or so ago. It stressed my parents out to no end, but the insurance company (Progressive, I believe) was wonderful and handled everything. They told my dad not to worry about a thing. It did end up going to court and we went with my dad for support -- it didn't go in front of a jury. I think if it had, the woman wouldn't have gotten a dime.

Turns out, she seems verrrrrry sue happy. My dad had hit her with his antique car. He was in a parade, and she cut through the parade route with her car. He didn't see or expect anybody to be cutting through the route, so he ended up hitting her at a very low rate of speed. Her car was barely dinged. The attorneys turned up all these medical records for her for years going back for the same injury she was claiming in that accident, plus they had proof that she'd been in another accident months before. The previous accident was the type to cause her neck injury, where a side hit supposedly shouldn't have. They still awarded her $2500.

I'm still ticked about that, but again, the insurance company took care of everything.

It's better to pay them the $2,500 dollars than get the case dismissed. With the settlement everyting is final. Otherwise they can come back and sue again. Learned that from work. When we fired someone and had proof it was justified our lawyers would settle for pennies on the dollar. They would show them the proof and offer a very low settlement. Amazing how fast the problems went away.

 

[mickeysgal]

I want to thank everyone who took the time to reassure me. It has really helped calm me to see that things will be okay. I also talked to the staefarm claims rep she also told me not let it get me down and that they will fight this to jury if need be.

I hope you're feeling a bit better after talking to your agent. Your agency will take care of this for you. I'll bet they see this kind of stuff day in and day out.

 

[christineann]

Lots of good advice for you here, dzneprincess. I work in insurance defense, and your insurance company and counsel will handle it. "Pain and suffering" is a standard allegation in a summons and complaint involving personal injury. Another standard allegation is "causing the plaintiff to be thrown violently around the inside of the vehicle" even when there is not a scratch or a dent on his/her vehicle.

 

[mrsltg]

Hi all
Basically I am looking for reassurance from people who have been there done that. Almost 2 yrs ago my dh had a fender bender he ran into someone from behind. When it was all said and done he had 1600 worth of damage and she had 700. Insurance has already paid that. Well we got served last night. The ins (state farm) had sent me a letter a week ago warning me this might happen but it has really sent my nerves on edge and made me anxious and panicked. The ins person told me that they will fight this to a jury if need be and not to worry. But I could really use some reassurance and stories from people who have similar stories.

Same thing happened to me when I was 17 (technically my parents were sued.) It was ridiculous and the suit was fought by the insurance company. The girl sued for $1m and walked away with a little under $10k. It was frustrating, though. Try to put it out of you mind. People think of car accidents like winning the lottery these days .

 

[JoiseyMom]

My DS17 at the time, was hit and had his car totaled at 2 am one evening. Technically it was DS's fault..the light turned green, DS wanted to go left, and waited, but the other car didn't go..so DS went. At this corner, they usually let the cars turn (well during daylight). Well the driver of the other car obviously wasnt paying attention and woke up, saw the green light, floored his car and totalled DS's car!

DS was ok, thank g-d. And so was the driver of the other car. The driver of the car behind DS was and EMT, and made sure both of them were ok. Well..2 days later DS gets served with tickets. Turns out the driver of the other car was a police officer from another town, and filed charges against my son for driving with a provisonal license after hours. Well DS had a regluar license, not a provisional...which they could tell...but he wanted to bust my son's chops and send him to court!

This dragged on for over 4 years!! DS and DH were sued. DH was eventually taken off the law suit. The papers never specfically said where his injuries were. I googled the lawyers and saw they were high end ambulance chasers shall we say.

The ticket for the provisional license was thrown out of court (this was a fun day..the judge was being difficult. DS had to leave for college in like 2 days and the judge wanted him to come back to court in 2 weeks). The prosecutor was great and listened to him and spoke to the judge and it was taken care of.

I had to drop DS from my insurance so my rates wouldn't go up. He went to college in NY, so he got a new drivers license there, and when he got a new car he got insurance on his own in NY too.

Our insurance company handled the case...and tried to get the guy to settle. The guy refused to settle. It went to court 4 years later..DS had graduated college and was getting ready to report for duty in CA. He went to college on an ROTC scholarship, and he had to be in Edwards in July. He made it. The cop lost!! He lied about his injuries and what he could and couldn't do..but had no proof. He showed up in court in jeans and a henley!! DS wore slacks, dress shirt and tie. He was not allowed to wear his uniform (he was a 2nd Lt. at this point). The cop wound up with like 5k for his medical...and nothing else!! If he had taken the deal he would have gotten 50k!! Guess he got greedy...and had stupid lawyers!!

So don't worry...yoiur insurance company will take care of you!! Ours was awesome!

 

[manning]

England has a good system that would go a long way to solve these situations. If you want to sue you better have a good or winable case. If you lose you pay the defendant's attorney fees and court cost.

 

[Shelley Chiarats]

Im worried about this from the other side. My husband was riding his motorcycle to work one cold morning. A young lady did not defrost her windows and then turned out of her apt complex into the sun. She could not see where she was going and drifted into my husband's oncoming lane. She hit him in the leg with her car. He suffered a broken femur, and two breaks in the tibia/fibula.

It took two ambulances to patch him up enough just to get him to the hospital. Then he spent 12 hours in surgery. He had a rod put in the upper half and 2 plates and 25+screws put in the bottom half of his leg. And he lost half a finger.

We have obtained the services of a lawyer. He was part of the same company that was our lawyer when we bought our house so not an ambulance chaser. I'm not sure whether we will settle or sue at this time.

In order to sue, we need to determine the extent of the "costs" to know what would be reasonable to ask for. We DO NOT look at this as we won the lottery. We have been very lucky in that my husband's new employer has been very reasonable and he had sick leave on the books with his old employer.

However, there are many things (tangible and not so tangible) that this accident has cost us. He's had three hospital stays and is still in therapy and walking with canes more than 6 months later. We had to cancel our Disney trip planned for this past November. And that affected not only us but both our parents who were supposed to go with us. He has spent more than 3 months on IV antibiotics at home and spent 6 weeks with a VAC attached to his leg. And this is just the surface and most obvious.

How about some examples and stories of people who were on the other side. They were the victim in the accident and how it worked out good/bad for them?????

Thanks.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I've been on both sides. I was hit sitting waiting for a red light (rear ended) and was awarded a lump sum of money ($15,000.00) for back injuries sustained. I wasn't injured badly, but my attorney wanted me to be covered should my condition somehow deteriorate 10-20 years later. I'm completely fine today...

Also, one of my employees, who didn't have permission to drive a company vehicle, used his key to "break in" to my workroom and took one of our vans out over the weekend to help a friend move his apartment. Long story short, he ended up rear ending a Mercedes. We were found blameless, one, because he had no permission to drive the car, in essence, he stole it, and two, the person he hit made up an outlandish story, complete with doctored photos, and our insurance attorney tore her allegations to pieces. I believe they ended up going after her for insurance fraud.

To the OP, I suggest just being as forthright as you possibly can with your insurance company, do not under any circumstances talk to the opposition's legal counsel, and everything will work out fine. Isn't this why we have insurance anyway?