A question for the lawyers
 

Dear Lawyers,

The time has come for me to eat my words about your most common response, which is "get yourself a lawyer". Now I really understand what they mean when they say 'litigious society'.

As you may recall, we were involved in a minor traffic accident some time ago. We hit another car at about 5 miles an hour, probably less. The police were called and never came so there is no police report.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-5...urance-841142/

The woman we hit is now claiming injuries (:rofl:). The insurance has sent us a letter saying 'We have a bodily injury claim open' and that their lawyers are investigating the claim on the insurance's behalf.

I'm starting to feel extremely uneasy about this. How and when do we get to tell our side of the story? I've called the insurance and they were just full of euphemisms and politically correct blabber 'sometimes an old injury can be resurfaced on impact' ... :rofl:

Can someone advise how I go about finding a (good) lawyer for an injury claim against us?

:/

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

In this case, since you have insurance, you shouldn't need a lawyer - your insurance company should handle everything. Don't have any communication with the other party and let the insurance company handle it.

You may end up getting sued by the other party. Once again, don't worry about it - that is just how people get an insurance company's attention - just pass everything on to your insurer.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

Don't hire a lawyer since it is the responsibility for the insurance company to settle the claim. The only time you'd have to be concerned is if the settlement was more than your liability insurance coverage.

Before I left the US for Europe. I hit someone and while I was in Germany, I received a summons to court. I went to see a lawyer (US law) and he said my insurance company didn't want to settle and under California law, someone has 2 years to file a lawsuit or their claim is dismissed. He said I got the summons because the lawsuit was filed and just ignore the summons. I never heard again so I guess my insurance company settled.

Another person on BE, Brat1's dog bit a little girl and after 2 years she found out she was being sued and freaked out. I told her to not worry and apparently the insurance company eventually settled.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

OK thank you everyone for calming my nerves... but I really want to minimise the damage to our insurance premiums etc and ensure that the insurance company knows we dispute her injury claims (or is it just not worth bothering?). We've not been contacted by the insurance to give our side of the story yet.

However, early on in the claim we did contact the other party because they gave us their details and initially said they wouldn't mind settling outside of the insurance. When we heard she was injured we called to check that she was OK (ROOKIE MISTAKE). She then called the insurance to tell them we were harassing her. I called the insurance to explain what had happened and to have it on record that we'd definitely not be contacting her again. So, that's probably another spanner in the works :s

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

It won't matter. If the accident was your fault and the woman said she was ok settling outside of he insurance but changed her mind, it doesn't matter how much the claim is because your rates go up the same amount.

From the sound if it, she probably didn't want the police to be called to try to run up the claim. If the police came, talked to her, and saw so little damage, they would make a report and she'd probably have a problem claiming that she was injured. There are scam artists out there and there is really not much you can do about it. However the insurance company probably knows what is going on so is playing hardball.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

Just work with your insurance company and let them do their job, you likely can't do anything at this point to prevent an increase since most likely your company will settle to avoid court. In the US insurance companies much of the time just settle a claim to be done with it and not go to court.

Depending on how long you have been with the insurance company, don't be shocked if they drop you or decline to renew your policy.


We have monopoly car insurance here, so only 1 company, so that company represents both sides.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

Well we did call the police but they didn't turn up and then when we called again they said there was some incidents going on and no police were available to come to a minor traffic accident.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

Police don't want to get involved with minor accidents. She probably found an ambulance chaser lawyer and they are probably trying to say she was seriously injured and demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars. However if they go to court, they have to prove that they were seriously injured so then the lawyer will try to settle for enough to pay his fee and a pittance for her. They are just trying to blackmail the insurance company. However if you didn't have insurance, she'd probably never considered claiming that she was injured since it's hard to collect money from an individual even if she wins the lawsuit.

Just look at OJ Simpson who lost a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit and never paid a cent but lived a life of luxury.

As far as your insurance, it will probably go up in price but highly unlikely be cancelled.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

Isn't this just the same thread as your other one:confused:

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

My advice: let the insurers deal with this, THEN sue the 'injured' party back. See if you can add triple damages to the claim, as you can in many states. That's what I did when an 18 year old found an ambulance chaser lawyer to go after me in England.

After 2 years of his claim sitting doing nothing, I delivered a written request for him to compensate me for my lost time and expenses. He never paid, so I sued him. I was awarded over a grand by the small claims court, which he then never paid. So I sent in the bailiffs against the little ****er. I even took a day off work to wait outside his home whilst the bailiffs went in and took his stuff.

Pikey scum. I hope it taught him an expensive lesson. Fingers crossed he'll have killed himself in a motorcycle accident by now.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

For the record, can you just confirm what state you're in right now (location not emotional). I'm thinking of avoiding it for a while just in case.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

I live in MA. This was in England, though. My knowledge of the MA legal system is no where near my knowledge of England's. I have to hire attorneys to take care of stuff like that for me here unfortunately. Costs a fortune. Can't even get legal aid for family related issues.

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

Why don't you just get a law degree and do it yourself:lol:

Re: A question for the lawyers
 

You can't do that in the US since someone can't enter a person's home without a warrant and a warrant will only be issued to the police for criminal matters, someone can't seize anything unless it was used as collateral for the debt in which the lawsuit was won, and can only seize collateral if it is outside the home. If you get a judgment and the person doesn't pay, you then have to get a garnishment order but you have to present to the judge the defendant's employer name and/or bank account numbers. States restrict what percentage of a person's wages can be garnished (sometime $0 if below a certain disposable income) and often the person quits his/her job when a garnishment order is issued. If that happens, you have to get a new garnishment order when he/she gets a new job and/or new bank account.

Since there are court costs for each step and possible lawyers fees, most companies in the US seldom file lawsuits against people when the debt is less than about $5,000 since their costs may possibly exceed what is eventually recovered.

OJ Simpson never paid on the wrongful death lawsuit since he moved to Florida which has unlimited homestead protection on his primary residence, they can't seize anything in the home, they can't seize his car or boat since those weren't used for collateral, he didn't have any earned income, and they couldn't find his banks accounts to garnish.