A few years ago, my husband was skiing downhill when another skier came from uphill and collided into him. It was a normal recreational skiing on a green run and everyone seemed fine. An incident report was filed and everyone went on their way.
Now she’s making a demand for $300k. Our liability insurance limit is $300k. Our insurer has decided it's best to try and settle in the $100–200k range through negotiations.
We’re obviously incredibly stressed and unsure what this realistically means for us.
Questions:
• If insurance settles within limits, are we typically on the hook for anything personally?
• What kind of premium increases have people seen after a liability claim like this?
• Do these cases usually settle or go to trial?
• Is there anything else we can do? Our lawyer can't get involved at this point because we aren't being 'sued' in a trial.
Would appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been through something similar or has perspective.
What to expect after large settlement from homeowners for ski accident..
byu/BananaValuable1000 inInsurance
Posted by BananaValuable1000
2 Comments
Most all cases settle within the limits, which means you would have no personal exposure. Even better that the ‘demand’ is within your limits, so they don’t appear to be looking beyond your limits. As long as they reach a settlement, further litigation is unlikely, only a handful of cases reach trial. The insurance seems to understand the value of the case here. I would expect this to settle soon enough.
Nothing else for you to do, just let the insurance handle it.
Why was there a liability claim filed in the first place? From my understanding (20+ years of skiing), it is the uphill rider’s responsibility to yield to the other riders downhill from them. From your description it sounds like your husband was the downhill rider in this scenario. He should not be held liable for this accident.