What if the person who was rear ended did not file a personal injury to the insurance company at the time of the accident? Can he still out of the blue file a lawsuit against the person who hit him even though it had been over a year, claiming that he was seriously injured? What are the chances of this person winning the lawsuit?
2007-11-27 12:20:55 · 6 answers · asked by Evelyn 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Insurance
The person that I hit is suing me for injuries!
2007-11-27 15:00:25 · update #1
They don't have to file at the time, they have until the statute of limitations runs out in your state - which is probably 2 - 3 years after the accident occurs.
Chances of a win are pretty good - you rear ended them, you're clearly at fault for the accident. DAMAGES are what's up for grabs here. Your insurance company will defend you, up to your policy limits. If you've got a low limit, they might try to settle for that. So, they'll look at the damages to both cars, the medical bills, the injuries, the permanent disability, if any, and match those up against what the other person is asking for.
2007-11-27 13:43:21 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First off, rear ending someone's car is usually an open & shut case, you are at fault. I imagine at this stage the material damage aspect of the claim has been sorted, i.e. your insurance company have paid out to have any damage to the other guy's car fixed. Normally before they pay out this, the paying company will ask if the other party are going to be filing any claim for personal injury and you should check with them to see was any mention of injury during the correspondence. There should be some sort of accident report form filled out and they should have stated on this that they were injured. Having said that, sometimes injuries from rear ending take a while to manifest, in other words, a few months after the accident he could have started experiencing neck pain or back pain and sought some medical advice. This may then be traced back to the car accident, hence the one year delay. He is still within the "Statute of Limitations" for taking a personal injury claim so legally, he can take the case. He may win the lawsuit depending on the circumstances, the only thing that may go against him is if, when he realised he was injured, he did nothing to mitigate the damage i.e. he did not seek medical help at the time and the symptoms got worse. Best of luck!
2007-11-27 23:49:58 · answer #2 · answered by Sue P 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The key is whether the person filed a police report or not. If not it seriously reduces his chances. The insurance company has rules about when things have to be filed that may interfere, and I would think there's some kind of statute of limitations.
After a year it would be a hard sell to a jury that an injury related to the accident suddenly cropped up.
2007-11-27 12:30:31 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as they are with in the statute of limitations they can. If they are outside the statute of limitations they can still sue but your lawyer would have to raise the defense regarding the statue to get it dismissed.
If you had insurance at the time of the accident CALL THEM RIGHT NOW - IMMEDIATELY - DON'T PASS GO - DON'T COLLECT $200.
Your insurance company will hire an attorney to defend you in accordance with your policy provisions. They have a limited time to get the answer on file and the clock starts running as soon as you get served. In my state, it's 30 days. The insurance company will need to know when you got served and how. They will need a copy of the suit. You can fax/email a copy to get the process started but then you will need to send them the original papers. You can keep a copy for yourself.
In that time - your company has to review the suit - assign it to counsel - send defense Attn copy of the file - defense attorney review - call you to get additional information - write up answer to suit and file. It's a lot to do and the more time you can give them, the better.
You can choose to hire an attorney at your own expense to work with the insurance attorney. However, the defense attorney that your insurance company hires will be working to protect your interests - not the insurance companies interest. The insurance company just pays the bill and assigns it to an attorney they know will be able to give you competent defense - they work with firms that do insurance defense.
2007-11-27 15:40:00 · answer #4 · answered by Boots 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
are you lying about being injured? that's insurance fraud and you'll wind up in jail - you would have to have medical records dating from the date of the accident to back up any "legitimate" claim
2007-11-27 14:47:21 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as it is within your states statute of limitations they can do what they want.
2007-11-28 07:10:55 · answer #6 · answered by mamatohaley+1 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋