Q: being sued by someone claiming personal injury from my car in 2018. He went through my insurance. Now he’s suing me
I have no property. All I have is a checking account I pay my rent with and a car worth $2,000. What do I do?
A: First stop and take a deep breath. You have insurance and they will handle it all for you. It seems they were making a claim with your insurance company for the past few years and were unable to reach a settlement. They only have three years from the date of accident to file a lawsuit, and I would guess they were coming up on that deadline. A lawsuit from a car accident is always against the driver and owner of the car, and not against the insurance company, but the insurance company provides you with a lawyer at its expense and pays any settlement or verdict up to the amount of your policy limits. You should immediately send the summons and complaint you received to your insurance company so they can put in an answer on your behalf. You only have 20 days to file an answer, so don’t delay.
Tim Akpinar , Steven Richard Smith and Jonathan R. Ratchik agree with this answer
A:
Turn the papers over to your insurance carrier after making a set of copies for your own file. If you are contacted, do not make any statements. Politely advise the law firm that the matter will be handled by defense counsel arranged by your insurance carrier. With your cooperation, your insurance carrier should handled things from here. Good luck
Tim Akpinar
Steven Richard Smith and Jonathan R. Ratchik agree with this answer
A: Claims are usually started with your insurance company. Perhaps the property damage claim was settled with your insurance company but apparently the bodily injury claim was not able to be settled. This generally occurs when the the offer made by your insurance company is significantly less than the attorney for the claimant believes the case is worth. But that is why YOU have insurance. Turn the Summons & Complaint over to your insurance company, ask them to represent you, and they will assign an attorney to represent you at no cost to you. They will defend your interests and if a payment is made to settle the case, your Insurance company will pay up to the liability policy limit. Only in the rare case of a trial and a verdict would you be asked to pay more than your policy limit. This is indeed a rare occurrence. For now, and for the most part turning the matter over to your insurance company will be the best step. Best wishes
Jonathan R. Ratchik and Tim Akpinar agree with this answer
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