Q: I am uninsured and was hit by an insured driver. It was their fault but they want me to pay their damages what can I do?

A: It is hard to say what the other driver will do and it is very unfortunate that you don't have insurance as the insurance would have defended you. You could go and talk to an attorney now to develop your defense strategy or you could just wait and see what happens. I want to warn you that there will probably be two issues that come up. First will be his property damages. Assuming he has full coverage he will get his car repaired through his insurance company and then someone from the company will start pursuing you for the property damages. Meanwhile the driver and any passengers in the other car might start getting medical treatment under the PIP (Personal Injury Protection) portion of their insurance coverage and that could lead to other future claims for personal injury against you, most likely by a private Attorney hired by the other driver and any passengers. So you need to be very very careful about not paying this person off for his property damages thinking the problem is solved because these other personal injury claims could still be brewing. Also an uninsured accident in Oregon eventually will lead the Oregon DMV to try to suspend your license although I am not sure how this works if you are a Washington driver, but if Washington State has a similar license suspension policy, you might end up with a suspended license. You can also have your license suspended for an unpaid judgment against you for damages related to an automobile accident until the damages are paid or the Judgment expires, which ever comes first.

There is one cure-all solution which is to file bankruptcy. Assuming that the accident was not related to drunk driving, you should be able to cut off all liability for damages and prevent your license from being suspended for an unpaid judgment, although a suspension for not having insurance could still happen, but that is usually only one year and you can get a permit to drive for necessary trips like to work and for medical appointments. If you have other debt issues weighing you down, bankruptcy might be a good option to do now. If you don't have other debt issues and potentially can get out of this situation for a small payment, then it might be worthwhile to hire an Attorney to negotiate a payoff with a release that cuts off any further claims against you.

Again, you have two options. One is be proactive and engage an Attorney now to help you mitigate this or possibly file a bankruptcy. Second, wait and see, but be very careful about doing any partial settlements only to find out that the problem isn't over.

A: PS My answer below is from the perspective that you are not going to prove that the other driver is at fault. If you can show that the other driver is at fault, you might want to lean toward hiring an Attorney to advocate that perspective. However I would talk to an Attorney about the facts of the accident and get an objective opinion first.