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Action in excess of $15.000.oo?

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TooBad

Junior Member
I'm being sued by a driver that "connected" with my car when I was changing from center to left lane, I was charged with the accident and just received a summons for a law sute, stating the suit is "in excess of my insuranc coverage limit of $15.000.00 they are also mentioning there own insuranse co. as a defendant, stating that there own insurance co. should pay out any settlement monies to them, in excess of what my policy covers!?. Am I understanding this right? If there is a judgment against me over $15.000.00, there own insurance co. will pick up the rest and pay them off and it's all settled? or will there insurance co. then come after me to get that money from me, in a new law suit? or how does it work?
My first time here.
Any help or advice much appreciated.
 


alnorth

Member
or will there insurance co. then come after me to get that money from me, in a new law suit?
Bingo, its called subrogation, where an insurance company pays off the policyholder, then goes after the at-fault driver to get their money back.

The way you described this is pretty strange, though. If the policyholder has full coverage, they should not need to sue anyone, they get paid off and then their insurance company goes after you, unless they wanted to sue for the deductible. If there was bodily injury, they should only be sueing you, not their own insurance company.

It almost sounds like they tried to get paid by their insurance company on a PD and/or underinsured claim, were either denied for some reason or were unhappy with the offer, and are now just sueing everyone. Did the lawsuit mention anything about "bad faith" regarding their insurance company?

As for what to do, contact your insurance company immediately. They will provide a lawyer to defend you.
 
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TooBad

Junior Member
BTW- I'm in Florida.

More to the story; The woman that owns the car was a passenger and the man driving was doing a test drive on her car,he works for a repair shop.
Her husband is an attorney, he was not with her at the time of our accident.Everything was just fine, no injuries and minimal damage to both cars.
A police report was made and I was tickited for "Improper lane change",- this was almost two years ago.
About a week ago a cop knocked on my door and handed me the summons. The summons states that the, her and her attorney husband (both listed as Plaintiffs) are suing for permanent injuries to her and him- not getting his wife's "services and consortium" all this time and since she is also having "permanent injuries" he is depraved of this in the future as well, "in excess of $15.000.00"- *my insurance limit. The summons list; Me, the man that was driving her car, the place he work and his own insurance co. as Defendants!
I don't know what he is doing or if his insurance co. looked thru his "story" and denied him any thing!? But now I'm holding the bag.
I was notified by my insurance co. that a suit was on the way to me and they have told me that they will provide a attorney, but how much will that help me if he get more then my limit- he is going for the gusto! And remember, there was NO injuries and I was talking to the woman for about 30 min. before the cop got there and she was nice and friendly and definitly did not have any type of injury at that time and the police report stated NO injuries!
 
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moburkes

Senior Member
alnorth, the plaintiff didn't have to have full coverage. Evidently the medical damages are in excess of the mandatory PIP coverages that have been exhausted. Next on the list is the at fault party's liability coverage. If that's not enough then the not at fault's underinsured motorist kicks in. If that's still not enough, then the at fault party starts paying out of his pocket.

Now, there are a few rules.

Like, when you sue - sue everybody.
And, when you sue - reach for the moon and settle for the stars.

There are other rules, like -
NEVER buy a LITTLE amount of insurance. It doesn't pay in the end, and better coverage is only slightly more expensive.
 

alnorth

Member
That clears it up, TooBad. They likely have underinsured motorists coverage, but they need to prove that you are underinsured to pay their damages in order to collect on their own UIM policy. Assuming thats true, I dont think they really needed to name their insurance company.

They named the other driver because you dont have a lot of money available at all, so they are trying to get any other insurance policy available. Presumably, they are going to try to show that both you and the other driver were partially responsible to get at both policies.

Aside from that, I'll have to defer to someone else. Florida has a pretty strange form of PIP (which is due to expire later this year). I'm not really sure what your liability potentially is here, if and how someone can get past the FL PIP laws to go after you personally, whether Subrogation would apply in this state for a UIM claim, etc.
 
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alnorth

Member
alnorth, the plaintiff didn't have to have full coverage. Evidently the medical damages are in excess of the mandatory PIP coverages that have been exhausted. Next on the list is the at fault party's liability coverage. If that's not enough then the not at fault's underinsured motorist kicks in. If that's still not enough, then the at fault party starts paying out of his pocket.
I am well aware of how insurance works for an injury claim, the OP didnt mention injuries until his second post. When I was referring to full coverage, that was specifically aimed at property damage, in an attempt to puzzle out why a presumably intelligent lawyer would name the other driver and their own insurance company in the same action, which is fairly bizarre. The insurance company did not damage anyone, and has no reason to be named until they fail to fulfill their contract.
 

alnorth

Member
Why is their form of PIP crazy?:confused:
Well, not the PIP, but FL's strange quasi no-fault law. The FL legislature also does not make it easy on anyone to keep up with their constant tinkering and reforms on the auto insurance requirements and their no-fault law. Their latest experiment is to apparently eliminate PIP altogether by letting it sunset on October 2007... but they have no BI requirements, except for certain classes of problem drivers. Unless I've missed something, most FL drivers would apparently only be required to have PD, potentially creating lots of legally uninsured drivers. There's also talk of a new emergency session to keep PIP going, its a mess.

From looking around briefly, the plaintiff cant automatically go after the OP once UIM is exhausted, they apparently need to meet a specifically defined threshold for extremely serious injuries to go after the OP personally, which is probably why they carefully described the seriousness of the injury.
 

moburkes

Senior Member
I agree that it makes absolutely no sense to not require BI, UNLESS you are involved in an accident. At that point you can lose your license for not having it.

I also agree about OPs liability. I was just explaining the steps.
 

TooBad

Junior Member
Naturaly I don't know how much the two Plantiffs are asking for, but by them suing all the people they can think of, they must be out after the whole nine yards! I don't mind people getting what tey are in title too, but since this accident was with very minimal damge, some minor body work to her fromt right fender and NO INJURIES, I feel that these two are nothing but con artists and that is avery bitter pill for me.
What, if anything can I or my insurance company do to investigate them and there doctors or insurance fraud, or is it not worth the hastles for the amount of money involved- $15.000.00.
This is the kind of cases that makes everyones insurance premiums go up and, yes, in my book it is fraud. I seen and talked to the woman and asked her how she was and her reply was, "I'm ok, but not my car"! I don't know, but this sucks, big time!
What is your oppinion, will they come after my 2000 chevy, my $10.00.00 medical emergency bank account,my 1/4 acre of swamp land? I know that they can't take my little condo.- or can they?, how about my Social Security check?
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
No one has mentioned this, but they will have to prove not just that you were at fault for the accident, but also that their damages are worth the amount they are asking for. You might want to consider hiring your own attorney. If they ARE awarded a judgement in excess of your policy limits, they can attack any cash assets you have and put leins on your property. Social security is exempt though, they can't touch that. But don't jump the gun, you don't even know if they have anything resembling a strong case for more then 15k. Once your insurance company assigns you an attorney, you should meet with him or her and find out more about the case.
 

moburkes

Senior Member
FL doesn't allow a judgment collect to get their money very easily. AND, the lawsuit should list the $ amount they are asking for. Should. In a few instances, it doesn't, but in most cases it does.
 

TooBad

Junior Member
Is there anything that I can do now to protect the few assets that I have, like the 1/4 acre land, can I give it to my son so that it will be in his name (was going to give it to him anyway in a few years.) or will/can they go after *him for it,if they know that I gave it to him at this point in the proses of the law suit?
No, I don't want to jump the gun, but I rather prepair for the worst and hope for the best.
 

TooBad

Junior Member
Fraud? at this point in time? No judgment has been made!
Is EVERYTHING that I owen now "frozen" so to speak? I still have to live and use my money other assets for that. If I have another heart attack or other bad thing hapen to me and I need to use that investment (the land) to get some needed money for a bypass surgery! you say that I can't do do that, or are you just talking about me giving it to some one in order not to have it taken away from me?
What exactly can I do?
 

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