Q: my wife died car accident and is on her dad's insurance but since she's my wife do I get paid

A: This is a complicated issue. If you don’t have an attorney, you should retain one as soon as possible. You can feel free to contact me if you’re not represented.

A: You should immediately see a personal injury lawyer who can review these issues with you. One issue is whether or not your wife caused the accident or was partly at fault.

A: Sorry for your loss. If you mean that she was in a fatal accident while traveling in a car insured by your father-in-law, that has nothing to do with it. You have the right to pursue a Wrongful death suit against whomever caused her death. If she was a passenger, you are entitled to the policy limits of his insurance per person, provided that there were not more than two people in the car at the time of the accident. So if your father-in-law had the minimum coverage of $25,000/$50,000, and the driver was only one other person in the car, you get $25,000. Similarly, if she was driving and the accident was another driver's fault, but they did not have insurance (I assume this because you ask about your father-in-law's insurance), you get $25,000. If your wife was at fault, you would NOT recover.

These sums would be reduced by any and all medical expense incurred for her care, unless she was pronounced dead at the scene. If she was badly injured, it is conceivable that you may not recover, at all. Hospitalization averages more than $10,000 per day, in addition to whatever is charged by doctors, surgeons, and for procedures like X-Rays and MRI's and blood work. Most insurance companies will agree to allow you to get something but Medicare does not negotiate beyond allowing for the cost of an attorney.

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