Q: My mom was in an accident last year (assumed her fault, in Oregon) and is now being sued for 500,000.

A: You mother just needs to turn this over to her car insurance company. Insurance companies put a lot of effort into defending these cases and often the opening amount that the complaint alleges is just a starting point for negotiation or juries will award less. Proving that a car accident led to mental distress that caused a suicide attempt seems a bit unrealistic although not impossible. I think that the Plaintiff had to have had existing mental issues and would have some responsibility to see to getting proper care for depression before getting to the point of attempting suicide. That would be my educated guess. But your mom's insurance company will launch a very thorough defense and request medical records and depose witnesses. It is not going to be easy for the Plaintiff.

At some point the insurance defense will need to talk to your mom about her insurance policy limits and whether the claim is greater then her policy limits and your mom may want to talk to her own attorney. Generally I counsel people like your mom as to whether or not they could file bankruptcy in the unlikely event that there is a Jury verdict greater then their policy limits will pay. However there is another line of defense before bankruptcy would be needed.

Generally a Plaintiff's attorney will offer to settle the case for the policy limits so that would mean your mom would have no exposure. But the insurance defense, thinking that the case is worth less, will reject the offer to settle for policy limits and keep fighting. Then when a verdict comes in for more than policy limits, your mother has a claim against her own insurance company for bad faith as they did not settle when they had the chance to settle for policy limits. The Plaintiff will ask your mother to sign a document assigning her bad faith claim to the Plaintiff and then your mom is off the hook for the excess claim. The Plaintiff will then sue your mom's insurance company on her behalf for the excess claim and will usually get the insurance company to pay the excess claim even if it is more than policy limits.

Now if your mom did not have car insurance, that is a big problem because the cost of attorney fees to defend a claim can get very expensive. Your mom should probably go and talk to a bankruptcy attorney if she didn't have car insurance that will provide her a defense for this accident.

A: Assuming your mom has good coverage, she shouldn't be too worried. They are more interested in the insurance than her.However they have to sue her, and can't sue her insurance. Above all she should make no statement to anyone from the other side, and never make any agreement to be responsible. They have no "right" to speak with her.The insurance company will give her an attorney and she can ask him questions.