Well his options are not too good lb. He could say his sister stole his car. Then she would have a felony on her record. I don't think he will want to do that.
Thanks everyone for your feedback. Let me make a few things clear...Breeze, the reason I was asking for the claim to be submitted to my insurance company is because when I called them to ask about when my policy commenced, they were unable to find a record of when it did. At the very least, I would be able to sort out upon filing of the claim, what charges were actually damages sustained and what were lawyer's fees. Age is relative, so by you saying that I must be really young, I have to ask compared to whom? This is not my current insurer so I am not concerned about a non-renewal notice. Premium increases may be an issue, but the accident occurred in June and I chanegd policies in December so would I not have already been affected? I am not trying to get away with anything, I am attempting to respond to a summons and complaint. My car is paid in full and was not going to be in use, so what sneaky subversive thing am I doing by not carrying insurance on the vehicle? Dodging the issue would be hiding out from the insurance company, I would think...I have no illusions about my getting off scott free without paying anything. It is my contention; however, that payment in full when there is nothing except a police report filed (officer was not called to the scene so fault is not determinable) and the insurance company's contention that the operator of my vehicle was negligent is ludicrous. ...I am not going to implicate my sister (who is 16) in any sort of criminal charges. I readily admit that she was stupid and I should have had the foresight to realize that she would sneak and take the car. Your criticisms are well said and going forward I will use what I have learned from this situation. But realizing you did not use good judgement doesn't make my problem go away. That all being said and done, I am attempting to find the best means available to deal with the consequences. The law firm has been unresponsive to my settlement overtures thus far...The insurance company says that I must deal with with the law firm. So while trying to settle, I still must file an answer to the complaint which prompted my post here....In my response I will cite the lack of proof of fault
If your insurance company cannot tell you the exact dates that you were covered, I think I would contact the MI insurance department. That does not make any sense. I am an agent - I can type in your SSN to a mainframe system and it will pull up any policy you have ever had with my company, some times an old, old policy would have been purged from the system, but not anything within the past 5 years, because the insurance departments require that companies keep their records that lon. A policy as recent as yours would have to still be on record.
re your age, I would say you're age 18-25, and as I said, in the military, deployed or in training. I have heard similar stories many times. The reason I said that is that someone with some experience dealing with insurance would not say their policy went into effect the day after the accident, but they wanted the claim filed on the off-chance the company might pay it. Didn't mean to offend.
No offense breeze....Like I said...you make perfect sense to me, I am just frustrated at the situation...If there is no determination for who is at fault via police report or witnesses how is liability determined? Am I 100% liable simply because the vehicle was uninsured while in operation?
Not necessarily, but if they are suing you, you had better see your legal advisor on base. They can help.
The reason you are being sued is because they claim you are liable for damages. You are what is known as a deep pocket (maybe). The girl who caused the accident presumably has no money so they go looking for someone who does (you). The lawsuit is an allegation against you, stating that you are responsible (for whatever reason). At trial, if it gets that far, they will have to prove their allegations to win. The fact you are getting sued really has nothing to do with the fact the car was not insured, except that if it had been insured, your company could have paid the damages. The pleadings, including your answer, frame the issues for trial. In other words, your legal defenses need to be raised now, not at trial for the first time. If you mess up at this early point, it will seriously hinder your chances of winning at trial, even if you are right. Even if you have no assets to get, they will have a judgement, and in many states those go on many many years. It could follow you around for a very long time. Assets you get twenty years from now could be taken (depending on your state). SOL does not apply to debts. If you erase the judgement by a bankruptcy, then you start your credit nightmare over again. In other words, you must get an attorney now, before it is too late. Just to drive home the point. A very good football player at my college got into a serious fight. He got sued. He had 0 assets so ignored it. The plaintiff got a multi million dollar judgement agaainst him. Eventually he got a vey big NFL contract. He decided to fight the suit then because he now had the money to do it. Too late. The plaintiffs collected.
NO. Only the driver causing the wreck Should be liable. What happened to you is due to a serious flaw in the auto insurance laws.
There are two way to avoid problems like Mels. 1* Never drive your own car. 2* Never let anyone drive your car.
