Not at fault accident - but headlights not on

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

I was involved in an accident on Jan 5 2009. As per the police, my headlights were not on and a person took a left turn in front of me at a traffic light intersection causing the accident.

A number of lawyers have looked at the case and have first agreed to pick it but later backed out, citing that it was not a very strong case due to the headlight issue. I denied that the headlights were not turned on - but the police officer said he looked at the filament in the light and it was intact.

The lawyers, when denying to pick the case did mention that if i want to file a suit, i should do it right away as i am running out of 2 Year Statute. Do they mean that i should pay to file the suit given that they are not willing to take it up on a contingency basis.

My insurance company was able to recover the deductible and rental car expenses from the other party's insurance company, which makes me feel my case is strong.

Should i be contacting more lawyers to see if someone can pick up the case on a contingency basis or should i pay a lawyer to file a suite? Is it even worth pursueing this case? Since i am about 3 weeks away from statute, have i already lost time or can i still file a suit.

At this point it is unlikely you will find a lawyer to take the case. The headlight should have only moved a small amount of fault onto you, so I'm not sure why so many lawyers shied away from your case.

given all of the facts of the situation, the lights not being on could shift a great amount of fault onto the OP IMO.

The cop was wrong in his determination. The filament not being broken does not prove the lights were not on. What a filament can tell you is, if it is broken, whether the light was on or not at that time. The problem with that is, a simple burned out light will look the same so if your lights did not work due to a burned filament, it would look the same as if the light was on at the time of the accident and the filament broke.

It is only part of the evidence used to make a determination.

The lawyers, when denying to pick the case did mention that if i want to file a suit, i should do it right away as i am running out of 2 Year Statute. Do they mean that i should pay to file the suit given that they are not willing to take it up on a contingency basis.

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Yes, they are saying if you want to file suit, as far as they are concerned, you will either need to act as your own attorney or pay them an hourly rate, if they will accept the case at all.

My insurance company was able to recover the deductible and rental car expenses from the other party's insurance company, which makes me feel my case is strong.

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what are you considering suing for? Medical expenses? I would hope so as you likely signed a release for any claims for property damage if the other insurance company paid these items.

The fact the other insurance company paid this minimal amount is not damning for their client. Insurance companies often pay minor claims to avoid being sued.

Process for filing the suite myself?

Thanks for the response.

We did not sign any release - my insurance company paid them to ensure we are released from any indemnity of liability - given our headlights not being on may have contributes to a certain degree to the accident.

The property damage claims are different from liability claim, they were settled in a subrogation, that our insurance company won. So there is not property damage claim we are filing for.

The claim is for lost wages and medical(my wife was pregnant at the time of accident and we continue to incur large expenses).

Is their a link on a website that i could use to go through the process of filing a lawsuite myself.

I don't have other party's contact address - so i will likely have to file the suit against the insurance company to meet the statute and keep the case alive.

Thanks for the assist!

Your action is not against the insurance company so filing a suit against them will do nothing to stop the running of the statute of limitations or recover your money.

with all of the interaction between you, the cops, both insurance companies, I find it hard to believe somebody doesn't have the address you need.

Thanks again

The police report does not have the address of the other party - my insurance is not very willing to provide me with one. I will check with the lawyers if they have the address - hopefully they do.

Is the insurance company not supposed to provide me with the address of the other party if i ask them - they are likely not giving it to me since i have high underinsured coverage.

Can i file a lawsuite to keep the statute while i still continue to look for the address.

Thanks for the help on this forum.

In order to file a lawsuit, you need to be able to serve the person you're suing.