Getting sued (assistance please?)

bil4l

bil4l

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Hey guys, I live in New Mexico, and 3 years ago tommorow I got in a rear-end car wreck. Well turns out it was some raggedy lawyer, we got his address and his house was extremely cheap, now he's in a cheaper city in New Mexico so he can't be too good of a lawyer. Anywho, when I hit him his truck didn't have a single scratch, nothing physical or cosmetic was wrong. He was perfectly fine and was walking around and was obviously completely fine, which he should have been considering I hit him going about 15 miles an hour.

Well, my mom talked to the insurance company about a year ago and they said even though he had three years to file something, he closed the case about two years after the accident through our insurance company (State Farm). Well today, 2 years and 364 days from the day of the accident he files a lawsuit for the accident, but in the summons we recieved today he says he wasn't able to contact the insurance company, meaning he couldn't have possibly reopened the case through them (even if he's able to do so, which i'm not sure he can anywho). So essentially he closed the case with my insurance company and then we get a summons today.

I find it kind of fishy that he says he couldn't contact our insurance agent even though it's an agent with one of the biggest insurance firms in America. He also says he had work done to his truck, even though NOTHING was wrong. It's also very odd that he waited 1 day before his 3 year window was up to file this BS. I'm pretty upset about the whole thing and I'm pretty pissed too.This guy is VERY suspicious, and I know a lot of very educated people use these boards and I was hoping someone might know some more information before my mom calls State Farm tommorow.

Any help on anything on this issue would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks in advance guys.
 
Well if the damage is under $5,000 then this is an issue with small claims court. In that case, I suggest you call your local bar association for help. Every major city has a bar association (the closest to me is the Oakland Bar Association).

Some of them have free legal advice for small claims court. If you are being sued for more than $5,000, then you have to try the laywer referral service that the Bar Association provides.

I have to warn you, be prepared to be on the phone for a long period of time. The hold times are incredible; Worse than the DMV.

EDIT: Before considering any of these actions, check with your insurance company first.
 
Thanks Xevious, I think my insurance company will pay for his "medical costs and car damage" however my insurance rate will rise about %40, and my insurance is expensive enough as it is, considering I'm only 19.
 
It's very odd that he would try to sue you for a case that your insurence agent already closed, perhaps he's hoping that he could convince you to fork over a couple hundred rather than go through the burden of hiring a lawyer and going to court?
 
Bottom line your insurance company has a responsibility to provide you with representation in this matter.

Contact them. If they settled this issue with him, it should be disposed of on summary judgement (ie as a matter of law there is nothing to decide legally).

I think this is nothing more than this guy is an idiot and is trying to pull a fast one, based on your description he sounds shaddy.

But fight this through your insurance company. If I were you I wouldn't loose too much sleep over this because thats what you pay the insurance company for.

CTL
 
This guy is probably just trying to take advantage of a young driver, and he may think that you don't know the laws or what your insurance company can do for you in a case like this.
 
I was involved in a rear-end collision with a neighbor down the street back in college (living at home then), and six months later or so, she hit me with a 1.25 million dollar lawsuit. It wasn't funny at the time, but my college buds called me the "1.25 million dollar man" back then.

Anyway, it all turned out to be a big scam as she had previously claimed ridiculous unsubstantianted injuries in other accidents as well, so after a year or more of me sweating in my boots, she ended up settling somewhere within my insurance company's minimal $20,000 policy.

I wouldn't get too worked up just yet. Let the insurance company handle it. They're used to handling scam artists like this. Besides, this joker has to prove his injuries and vehicle damage exist before he can begin to hope for a payoff.
 
Someone tried this on my sister a few months ago- your insurance company can probably handle the whole deal. After all, their records say this guy reported no damage, and closed the case already.

I know in my sister's case, they:
1) thought she was married to our dad for some reason (probably why they tried to weasel out more money)

2)claimed emtional trauma from the wreck for the student driver behind the wheel (my sister slid on a hill in the rain at night and hit him.) They said he was too afraid to leave his house or get in a car, some such BS.

Of course, the insurance folks looked into it- we have state farm too- and found the kid had not only been in sports, but had gotten his liscense since the accident. That's some real trauma there... and they never showed up for the arraignment. I think the whole thing fizzled out after that.

Basically, trust your state farm guy, or if you can afford it, maybe get another lawyer. As long as you can produce your insurance records saying he quit the case, he won't have a leg to stand on.
 
Once you have been served, you HAVE to respond within a certain time limit (usually 21 or 28 days). Call your insurance agent ASAP. You should be covered by the insurance company but if they are moving slow and time is running out, hire an attorney to make sure a response is filed with the court in time. If you don't respond in time, you may be defaulted which is NOT a good thing. Don't try to file your own response with the court, you will probably do more harm than good. If you have to hire an attorney, he should be able to get his fees covered by the insurance company but there's no guarantee.
 
Talk to your insurance company and don't get your advice online. There's a reason why IANAL is an acronym that people still use today (maybe just in obscurer Slashdot stories, but that's besides the point).
 
Since there was no real damage done... how much can the guy sue you for...i say take this to court and fight it out because there is no way he'll win this... ecspecially if you got pics of him ad his truck after the accident. I know your insurance could pay it off but.. as you said your rate would go sky high...

[quote name='SkyGheNe']Take him to Judge Judy. She'll have her way with his face.[/QUOTE]

:rofl: yea thats what i'd do.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']You needed to take pictures of his car at the accident. Is there a police report and what does it say?[/QUOTE]

That's good advice, but who carries a camera around with them? I guess people have camera phone nowadays though. Depending on the state there may not even be a police report because no one was hurt. I got in an accident in Minnesota, which is a no fault state and while I did call the cops, I don't think they filed a report or anything. They just came to make sure no one was hurt. They were there for all of about 10 minutes. I could be wrong though so it can't hurt to check to see if there is a police report as dafoomie suggested.
 
[quote name='Gothic_Walrus']Talk to your insurance company and don't get your advice online. There's a reason why IANAL is an acronym that people still use today (maybe just in obscurer Slashdot stories, but that's besides the point).[/QUOTE]

IMO, IANAL is as pointless as those "Do not attempt this at home" warnings when the guy on TV jumps over 15 schoolbuses in a golf cart.

I also think it's pretty funny that people always say "trust your lawyer", as if every lawyer is going to do a 100% quality job in arguing your case. When a guy is contracting on my deck, I check up on him. Check up on your lawyer too, IMO asking for online advice and rationally considering the responses is a totally legit way to do this.
 
I didn't take a picture and when my mom drove by the house and tried to take a picture they didn't turn out because it was dark. We did file a police report but this whole incident happened three years ago and I'm not sure exactly what it contained, but my insurance company is taking care of it. This douchebag really pisses me off, thanks for the help and keep it rollin in, thanks guys.
 
You should always keep a disposable or some crappy digital camera in the car so you can take pictures of the vehicles (and maybe persons) involved in an accident.
 
Bil4l, tickets and accidents are surchargeable for three years. If the accident was three years ago you don’t have to worry about an increase in your premium unless you’re currently receiving a discount that requires you to be accident free for more than three years. If that’s the case then you would just lose the discount but there still wouldn’t be a surcharge. I would recommend going through your insurance company, they have lawyers that deal solely with insurance claims.
 
[quote name='SkyGheNe']Take him to Judge Judy. She'll have her way with his face.[/QUOTE]

ba pa pa pa pa pa! I'm not talking to you, ma'am! Zip it!
 
Don't know if this helps - but here is my story which is similar to yours.
I re ended this lady several years ago at a light. The light was red and turned green. She accelerated and then slammed on the breaks. I was just accelerating and going about 5-8 MPH and I could not stop in time. She was in a conversion van. I was in my Saturn 4 door sedan. My car had no damage. Friends advised me not to contact my insurance company, but I did. Something told me that she was going to be trouble.
She filed a claim for 75 dollars in damages for the scratch on her bumper. So basically there was no damage.

Next thing I know I am being sued. Thank God I contacted my insurance company. I received several certified letters from their Lawyer which I just faxed and mailed to my insurance company. I must of received 30 letters in a 4 month time span. I had to fill out a 30 page document detailing the event. It was ridiculous too. The questions and detail was absurd.

Finally the day that I was suppose to meet with my lawyers and their lawyers came.... And that was the day they dropped the case. It was such a stressful time. Imagine if it was a serious accident.

I guess the moral of the story is to let your insurance company handle it. They handle this stuff all the time.
 
Yeah, my insurance went up 10% for another accident and would have gone up 40% for this accident except he never filed the claim until now. The insurance is going up because of the claim on the insurance so I'm looking at an extra $70 a month. I'm not too worried about it, but lowlives like this are really the scum of the earth.
 
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