Can anyone answer my question about my auto insurance policy?
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at
8:12 pm
KrOnOmEnTrOpHoBiA asked:
okay, last december 2005 I was involved in a minor car accident due to weather conditions, and I had to pay my auto insurance company a “500 deductible” to repair the damages that I made to my vehicle, so they had fixed it. This august of 2007, I recieve a letter from my insurance policy attorney stating that I am being sue by the plantiff of the vehicle that I hit. Why I’m being sued if I was cover by my insurance policy and the plantiff car, and is there anything I can do to defend myself. Because they should go after my insurance company if they didn’t pay for the plantiff car…. not me.
okay, last december 2005 I was involved in a minor car accident due to weather conditions, and I had to pay my auto insurance company a “500 deductible” to repair the damages that I made to my vehicle, so they had fixed it. This august of 2007, I recieve a letter from my insurance policy attorney stating that I am being sue by the plantiff of the vehicle that I hit. Why I’m being sued if I was cover by my insurance policy and the plantiff car, and is there anything I can do to defend myself. Because they should go after my insurance company if they didn’t pay for the plantiff car…. not me.
Tagged with: Car Accident • Plantiff • Weather Conditions
Filed under: Auto Insurance
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Perhaps the person you hit has damages that go beyond what your policy will cover. Perhaps the person you hit wants a bargaining chip. “I will drop my suit against your insured if you will pay me $X,XXX.XX more.” Perhaps your insurance did pay, but they found an attorney that has promised to get them more. Bottom line, your insurance should supply you with an attorney if it reaches the point of actually going to court, so just make sure your insurance is aware of what is going on, and follow their advice.
Um.. clearly you didnt have enough coverage.
Lets say you choose state minimum coverages (lets just pretend your states minimum are 10k for property damage.. and 10k for bodily injury) If you choose state minimum.. you put yourself in this situation and there is only so much insurance can do.
If there damages were 15k for their car.. insurance will pay the 10k.. and you will be responsible for the rest.
If there medical bills etc were 25k…. and your insurance paid 10k.. your responsible for the rest.
Understand now? IF you have really high coverages… and your insurance SHOULD be covering you.. maybe they dont know your being sued. call them asap and they will defend you to the best of their ability.
If your ins. comp. is a reputable one, they have to notify you of any activity concerning your policy. They will consequently “go to bat” for you when it comes to lawyers and court hearings. So it would be best for you to contact your agent Whit any questions concerning this matter. As I stated, if your insurance carrier is reputable, you should not have to worry. You may find that the statute of limitations has expired depending on your state or country which you reside.
Apparently your insurance company was not able to get the claim with the other party settled and the other party elected to file a law suit.
If it was a minor accident – the other person may have gotten a bit crazy with the medical treatment and run up a bunch of bills that your insurance company does not think are related to this accident.
The other person can not sue the insurance company. The law suit can not read “John Doe vs. XYZ Insurance Company”. The law suit has to be filed against you since you are the negligent party. You are the one who caused the damage/injuries.
The law suit also has to be served on you – not the insurance company. This is usually done by process server or certified mail. As soon as you get the suit papers -call the person who wrote you the letter – ASAP! The insurance company has a limited time to get an answer on file and the clock starts when you get the papers. Failure to get the answer in on time results in a default judgement against you (not good for you).
The insurance company will need to know when you got the papers and how. They will need the original papers but can give you a copy for your records.
Your insurance company will hire an attorney to defend you.
You can choose to hire an attny of your own at your own expense but you don’t need to. The defense attny that your insurance company will hire will be very competent.
You will need to cooperate with the insurance company and the defense attny. They will need to get information from you to answer the law suit. At some point, depositions will be taken and mediation may even happen. Very few lawsuits go to trial.
Most likley – the adjuster sent you the letter to give you a heads up that suit papers may be coming. I send those letters out when the plaintiff attny is really yelling threatening suit. The adjuster expects that the letter will prompt you to call them.
So call the adjuster – he/she will be able to give you more detail on what’s happening and how they will handle it.
If your insurance company paid for your vehicle repairs, you obviously had coverage. They should have settled with the other party by now, too.
Inform your insurer of the papers you received and ask them about the status of the claim.
You didn’t mention if the claim was for vehicle damages or medical damages. Some people do try to take advantage of an accident to get more money than they deserve. Your insurance company should handle this for you. That is why you pay them in the first place.
The only problem you may face is if you are underinsured yourself. If that is the case, you may find yourself having to pay additional costs.
You really need more info. to make a good decision. You need to know exactly what you are being sued for and why it has taken them so long to contact you regarding this matter.
the answers previously given are probably correct;
my guess is the statute is coming up, and the other attorney is filing suit to protect it; if your state is 2 years, the statute would be dec 07;
the car damages are most likely settled and this suit is for any injuries; your insurance company will handle this; do exactly what they tell you;
if on the other hand, they are filing for excess limits, meaning that your policy did not have enough to pay for the other drivers damages and/or injuries, then they will be looking to your to pay for any amount over your limits; if that is the case, then you would need to contact an attorney for yourself;
your insurance company should be able to explain what is going on and cooperate with them, since they are trying to protect your interest.