auto accident law suit

[Dewayne]

this past summer I rented a car from Thrifty car rental and had my 29 year old surrogate son sign up as a second driver.

my surrogate son had an accident hitting a car in the rear (the car was completely stopped at the intersection to an interstate and had no brake ligts) he was given a ticket - he was not listed on my car insurance and i did not take out rental insurance because i assumed my insurance would cover any accident. i have been served with a law suit from the driver of the car that was hit and my insurance company (although responding to the law suits on my behalf) said they would no pay for any damages since my surrogate son is not covered. i have never been involved in any law suit before and i do not know what to do - i have credit debts up tomy neck and if a judgement brought against me, i will not be able to afford any additional payments. what can i expect and should i file for chapter 13? i received another law suit from Thrifty (3 months after the accident for $16,000 for damages to their vechile although they never contacted me about making arrangements to pay them - the rental car's air bags did not deploy during the accident and i thought that they might have waved any charges because of this since i did not hear from them for weeks. I received one phone call after the accident and they told me that everything had been worked out, but no mention of any payments i owed them, then, out of the blue, the law suit.

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

dewayne Arkansas


[Edited by Dewayne on 02-25-2001 at 10:48 AM]

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

this past summer I rented a car from Thrifty car rental and had my 29 year old surrogate son sign up as a second driver.

my surrogate son had an accident hitting a car in the rear (the car was completely stopped at the intersection to an interstate and had no brake ligts) he was given a ticket - he was not listed on my car insurance and i did not take out rental insurance because i assumed my insurance would cover any accident. i have been served with a law suit from the driver of the car that was hit and my insurance company (although responding to the law suits on my behalf) said they would no pay for any damages since my surrogate son is not covered. i have never been involved in any law suit before and i do not know what to do - i have credit debts up tomy neck and if a judgement brought against me, i will not be able to afford any additional payments. what can i expect and should i file for chapter 13? i received another law suit from Thrifty (3 months after the accident for $16,000 for damages to their vechile although they never contacted me about making arrangements to pay them - the rental car's air bags did not deploy during the accident and i thought that they might have waved any charges because of this since i did not hear from them for weeks. I received one phone call after the accident and they told me that everything had been worked out, but no mention of any payments i owed them, then, out of the blue, the law suit.

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

dewayne

My response:

Today is the day for you to make an appointment to see an attorney for specific advice. It'll be well worth the $100.00 to $200.00 for your initial consultation. Do not delay because there is too much at stake.

IAAL