Q: In Oregon I was in an accident with a driver who did not have an operators license.
he was not driving his own vehicle. The woman's car he was driving did not have insurance. I sued them in small claims court for my car repair costs. Now, they have filed a counter claim for their vehicle. Can I be held responsible?
A:
Possibly. Call your insurance. Their counterclaim just triggered your insurance company to have to defend you under the terms of your policy. (Did you have full coverage? If so you should just get your repairs paid under your full coverage and your insurance company will go after the other driver for reimbursement. If you didn't have full coverage you are right, you had to sue this driver, but you made a huge mistake by not talking to an attorney first.
You could have hired an attorney who could have used a special statute to make a demand under ORS 20.080 (assuming your property damages are $10,000 or less) and then you would have also been entitled to Attorney Fees. There may still be a way to make a 20.080 demand since you filed in small claims court but it's tricky since it has to be made 30 days before the case gets moved to regular court and once you contact your insurance company they will want to move the case to regular court. So if your interested in seeing if you have time to do the ORS 20.080 demand before the case gets transferred, call an attorney next week. Otherwise just contact your insurance company and tender the case to them.
A: FYI when you get a judgment against someone like you were trying to do, they can get out of the judgment by filing bankruptcy. So even if you win in court, you still lose.
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