Q: If a person was found guilty of running a stop sign, and caused an accident is he legally responsible.
Driver found guilty of running a stop sign and failure to yield the right of way and he hit the van my husband was driving. just prior to impact, my husband glanced in the side mirror to check other traffic. he is being told the insurance company for the car/driver driven by the other party involved is not responsible, because my husband looked in the mirror. Is that true?
A:
Working with insurance companies may be difficult sometimes, but because the agreement with the insurance company is based on a contract, it is important to know what the contract says. The contract is essentially the "law" in this case. One could ask the insurance company the specific provision of the insurance agreement they are relying on to deny the claim. A lawyer could then better argue that their application of that provision--that "rule" or "law"--to the specific case is incorrect.
Now, many insurance contracts provide that the insurance company will not cover an accident if the insured party's negligence or inattentive driving contributed to the accident occuring. That is especially true in Virginia, where the courts follow a very similar rule in lawsuits. A plaintiff will not win a judgment for the defendant's negligence if the plaintiff was the least bit negligent as well. But if glancing in a mirror is the only basis for saying a driver was negligent, that seems to be a very weak claim. Proper driving technique requires regularly checking one's mirrors. Just because someones checked it at a moment that the person could have seen something else does not mean he should have seen been looking elsewhere.
You should know that you may also have a civil claim against the driver, especially if the insurance company will not cover the incident.
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