Overland Park, KS asked in Personal Injury, Car Accidents and Insurance Defense for Washington

Q: I am a defendant in a lawsuit. I was served a package of papers today. I am on a time schedule. The papers tell me to

I am a defendant in a lawsuit. I was served a package of papers today. I am on a time schedule. The papers tell me to contact an attorney immediately. I need to find an attorney. How?

1 Lawyer Answer
Steve Dashiak
Steve Dashiak
Answered
  • Personal Injury Lawyer
  • Tukwila, WA
  • Licensed in Washington

A: There isn't enough information here to give a full answer. One critical fact would be what type of lawsuit this is. Based on the categories you've selected, I am presuming you are being sued for injuries stemming from a car accident for which you were at fault.

If that's the case, another critical fact becomes whether you were insured at the time of the accident or not. If you were, contact the insurance company you had at the time of the collision and tell them you got served with a lawsuit. They have a duty to defend you and will take it from there.

If you were uninsured at the time, another critical fact would be your financial situation. No matter what, your options are all bad: find an insurance defense attorney to help you defend against / settle this, try to defend and settle with the attorney yourself, try to convince the attorney you have no assets or any income worth garnishing, ignore it altogether and hope they don't pursue the lawsuit, call a bankruptcy attorney to discharge your debt and keep your driver's license (should it be suspended due to the Financial Responsibility Law), or otherwise hide from bank or income garnishment by regularly hopping around jobs, or moving somewhere they can't locate you.

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