Q: Asking for a friend, who was served papers filing a claim for an auto accident, with significantly incorrect info.
Asking for a friend. If being served with papers after a MVA, the documents are not correct: the dates of the accident as listed by hospital/letter from doctor with service dates is incorrect, listing of medical procedure follow up for apparent injury unrelated to claims/manner of accident are included and person listed as defendant is incorrect. How does one answer this large document package with magistrate court? Also, I thought magistrate court had a financial limit of $10,000, the amount asked for in this filing is greater than $10,000. The plaintiff is clearly aggrandizing their so called injuries from an accident that was significantly less than barely a tap at barely idling speed with absolutely no physical damage to the vehicle. Not even a scratch. There could not possibly be any injuries due to this accident, especially as sworn to be correct but are indeed not.
A:
First, your friend needs to notify his/her auto insurer about the lawsuit immediately. The insurer should pay for a lawyer and pay any judgment/settlement.
Second, the factual errors may entitle your friend to several remedies including possibly a dismissal of the case. Even if they don’t warrant a dismissal, the misrepresentations might lead to a fact finder (jury or judge) to question the credibility of the plaintiff.
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