Being sued for old accident. Help!

What is the name of your state? Georgia State. Augusta, Richmond County.

Ok, this accident happened over a year ago. August 2006. Ran a red light due to a passenger distracting me(Yes, the accident was still completly my fault) and was fallowing a car out of the corner of my eye that ran the red light as well, he made it, I didn't. I wasn't able to brake in time at a very large intercection, and struck the front part of the bed of a newer model F-150. I only hit him going probably no more than 5mph. There was very minimal damage. Maybe $500-750 if your local paint shop was greedy.

Ok, we had a police report run and there was no ticket issued to anyone. I was more than cooperative to make sure he knew it was completly my fault.

*Now this is important* The car was not mine. The passenger was the registered owner and insurer of the car. Her insurance information was given to the police officer along with my address and contact information.

Now this was over a year ago. I hadn't heard anything about the accident, outside of a small call about 4 months ago that the claim was still open, and noone had taken any action at all in its case. They said they would contact me if there was any action prosented. Hmm, they could have given me a warning eh?

Yesterday my father calls me and tells me that a police officer stoped by and needs to serve me with paperwork for a suit against me.

So, now after all of that here is my questions.

What do I do next? Shouldn't this case be with her insurance? Even if her insurance, for some BS reason didn't want to pay anything, shouldn't they be coming after the insurance I had at the time of the accident? All in all, I know that I shouldn't be the one being sued here, they need to be contacting one of our insurance companies. Thats what we pay them for. I had full coverage at the time, and I believe she had liability.

If anyone has any advice in this matter, please feel free to comment. I have never been in this situation before. I'm 23 years old, just engaged, and only 9 months into the start of a great career. As you can imagine, I'm a tad stressed out as to what legal representation and proceedings may do to my new born banking account and life.

Thank you.

Chris

The case is with you, you were the driver. Report the lawsuit to the owner's insurance company ASAP. They will provide for your defense.

Ok, I might be ok.....

Well I may have gotten a reprieve. I recieved a letter from State Farm from the owner of the car I was driving, and State Farm told me to contact them immediatly if a lawsuit was brought against me. So, as said earlyer, I hope this is where they will take over.

Well I recieved all the paperwork about the claim and suit. This was just filed a week ago after a year of not hearing anything. Physical injury, loss of wages, and property damage. Looks like he found a lawyer that wants to get him every penny he can suck of of me, even if it's BS claims.

This guy was NOT hurt, only sustained minor damage to his car, and was at the collision scene no more than 20-30 minutes if he was late to work, if at all. The collision was at no more than 5-8 miles an hour. Now I know this accident was completly my fault, but you wait a year to say anything and a lawyer gets an idea in your head that you can sue some kid for all he's got. I leave my opinion of that matter be, because I am sure the insurance company will take over from here, and I will survive.

Needless to say, I don't let people distract me while I am driving anymore, and I drive even more defensivly than I already did.

If anybody has experiance in this kind of situation, please advise as to what I can expect next, people I should contact, or what I may need to know.

I'll be contacting State Farm at lunch, and will update as to the help they will be providing.

Thanks guys.

How do you know he wasn't hurt? Had you seen him since the accident? Injuries from auto accidents can take days/weeks to reveal themselves.

knightmetro said:

Well I may have gotten a reprieve. I recieved a letter from State Farm from the owner of the car I was driving, and State Farm told me to contact them immediatly if a lawsuit was brought against me. So, as said earlyer, I hope this is where they will take over.
<snip>
If anybody has experiance in this kind of situation, please advise as to what I can expect next, people I should contact, or what I may need to know.

I'll be contacting State Farm at lunch, and will update as to the help they will be providing.

Click to expand...

You answered your own question... What else do you need to know?