Car accident lawsuit as defendant

Irene83 · #1 05-08-2009, 12:01 PM

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? VA

Hello,

I had a car accident at my fault back to Oct 2007. My insurance company just called me saying that the other party decided to sue me since they don't accept the $$$ my insurance company offered.
My insurance coverage limit for body injury was $25k, but they asked for $100k, do i really have to pay the rest of $75k? what will happen normally?
Thank you!

ecmst12 · #2 05-08-2009, 01:36 PM

These are questions you need to ask your insurance company. Most likely, it will still never go to trial and in the end they will accept your policy limits. Filing the lawsuit allows them more power to search for your assets and also keeps the SOL from expiring. Your insurance can tell you if their claim is really worth what they are asking for. But the only way you actually have to pay anything is if they go to trial and win a judgement of more then your policy limits. So it's still too early to worry.

However I hope you have seen the error of carrying only state minimum coverage and have since increased your limits.

Irene83 · #3 05-08-2009, 02:00 PM

Thank you!!!

But how can they have more power to search for my assets? Can they actually get my bank information or something like that?

ecmst12 · #4 05-08-2009, 02:04 PM

I don't know exactly what they can do, but they have more ability to subpeona bank records and other information when you are the defendent in a lawsuit.

FrankTank · #5 05-08-2009, 02:48 PM

Asset checks usually initially consist of checks to determine if your are a homeowner, business owner, if you have previously ever filed for bankruptcy, if you have ever had any prior judgements against you, prior criminal convictions, etc. But if they want to I'm sure they can dig deeper.

There's also the possibility that the other person has greater Underinsured Motorist liability limits. Suit may have been filed to protect the SOL and allow their carrier the opportunity to perform the asset check to determine if they want to seek reimbursement from you in the future. It's necessary for the other party's insurance carrier to determine if they want to waive their subrogation rights against you prior to their own insured being allow to use their underinsured motorist benefits.

Talk to your insurance carrier and see what they say.