What happens if we are sued

[Csimmons]

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

My husband was involved in an auto accident in January 2009. It had rained that morning, so the roads were slick. A woman in a mercedes decided to thrown on her brakes to make a left hand turn into a gas station on a two lane road. This caused the truck behind her to suddenly stop, and my husband to hit him, which in turn hit the mercedes. My husband was the one who received a ticket, and his car was totaled. The damage to the other two cars was minor and covered by our Geico $25,000 personal property limits.

The woman driving the mercedes is claiming a neck injury, and currently the claim is still open. My husband and I do not have any savings, 2 cars, one of which we just had to purchase due to his car being totaled, and worth about $8000, and my old car worth about $1000. We live in a townhouse, which is only in my name, since it was purchased long before we got married. My husband works and makes less than $30,000 a year, and I am unemployed.

What is our recourse if she sues, obviously, we do not have the money to pay thousands to someone. Does this mean we would have to file for bankruptcy, since we cannot afford a lawyer? Can florida garnish wages for something like this?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[racer72]

If you are sued, give the info to your insurance company. They will provide an attorney for you and pay any claims up to your policy limits.

[ecmst12]

You seem surprised that your husband was cited and found at fault for rear ending someone.

[Defendant99]

Wages, earnings or compensation of the head of household which are due for personal labor or services, including wages deposited into a bank account (provided they are traceable and identified as such) are exempt from garnishment under Section 222.11 of the Florida Statutes.

[Antigone*of*Greece]

Defendant99,

You need to stop posting links in the manner you are doing so. It violates the TOS.

[slwx]

i'm not a legal expert -- come here for answers of my own

but here was our experience a few years ago.

my husband passed someone and they swerved, ran off the road, and flipped their vehicle. he didn't hit them -- he was in a brand new truck and there wasn't a mark on it, but he was given the ticket.

the person in the other car already had a neck brace on. he was 45, had been in 8 serious accidents before this one, and had sued in 7 of them.

at the end of the 2 year limit, he sued us. our insurance carrier had offered him the max under our policy and he declined it. he was trying to get the max on his insurance. our limit was $50,000 -- his limit was $300,000. his insurance company didn't think he was injured to that extent and was trying to fight the claim too.

anyway, the whole process is not fun, but here's how it went.
my husband was served with papers -- he was sued for $500,000 in actual damages, $450,000 in punitive damages. our insurance company provided him with a very good lawyer. turns out $450,000 was more than the $350,000 limit by law -- so that was kind of funny. the lawyer says those amounts are almost standard because they are trying to get insurance money and hoping you have some assets they can get too. other than vehicles, we didn't have much at the time. we were renting our home.

he also told us that they couldn't get anything in my name. if we owned joint property, that they could only attach to my husband's part (not sure if that's true) and couldn't force us to sell anything -- but would collect when we did sell. of course any judgement goes on your credit report which is a pain.

after he was served, i think they would have court date after court date and postpone everything. after about a year, they had a deposition meeting i think it was called, where both parties and all the lawyers met to show financial records and tell their side of things. everyone was really nice about it and it didn't last too long.

the day before the final court date, they settled for whatever they got from the various insurance companies.

now -- it was driving my husband crazy so in the middle of things he did file bankruptcy. the other insurance company could have came back after us for anything that they paid out if they wanted to. i'm not sure what the likelihood of that was. personally, i would have fought it first and then filed bankruptcy, but the stress was killing him.

the bankruptcy meant that they couldn't collect more than what the insurance would pay out and that their insurance company couldn't thry to get anything more out of us.

i don't know how it will work in your situation -- just wanted to share our experience because it was a very painful couple of years for us.

[LysanderSpooner]

Originally Posted by slwx

i'm not a legal expert -- come here for answers of my own

but here was our experience a few years ago.

Thanks for sharing. What state did this happen in?

Was the vehicle registered in your husbands name only?

Did he file BK under the old (pre-2005) law or new law? Chapter 7 or 13?

Thanks.

[ecmst12]

If slwx wants advice on her situation, she can start her own thread about it, but seems to me her situation is resolved and she's just offering up her experience.

[Csimmons]

Thank you everyone for your advice and suggestions. I will just keep hoping that everything is settled within our limits, so that I can stop stressing.

No, I was not surprised that he got the ticket,ecmst12. It's just disappointing that when people make bad decisions while driving, they can totally affect someone else's life, and driving record.

Also, sorry about my over emotional post. I am 24 weeks pregnant, and have worked hard to slowly improve my credit over the past few years, in the hopes that we could buy a better home in a few years from now. Of course, if we have to file for bankruptcy, then those dreams will be put on hold for a long time. That's enough to stress anyone out just a bit!

[ecmst12]

Yes, following too closely is a very bad driving decision. In fact, if there was one single thing that every driver could do to reduce accidents, it would be to BACK OFF and leave more space between them and the car in front of them. Leaving yourself too little reaction time is the biggest mistake that drivers make.

Anyway, injury claims stay open for a long time, it's not surprising that it's still open. But neck injuries are common and most of the time, they are all soft tissue and not serious. Don't expect the claim to be settled quickly, but I'd say it's pretty unlikely that it will go over your limits. No need to be paranoid.