I was recently in a crash where I was going straight through an intersection and hit a driver turning right into my lane. We both claim the right of way and don’t have a police report or witness statements dash cam etc (many lessons learned). I had automatically assumed I was at fault because I hit them but because they had failed to yield and neither of us can prove we had the right of way my insurance denied their claim. They are now threatening to sue me. I asked them to refer to my insurance for legal claims but they said that they think that legal actions should be directed to me. Any advice on how to proceed? I sent my insurance the letter they sent me threatening to sue but don’t know what my risk is and what I should prepare for. Relatively minor accident but they are now claiming their car is not drivable and I suspect they don’t have collision coverage because they haven’t filed a claim with their insurance (that I know of). Very anxious about the whole thing 🫠
Driver in disputed liability crash threatening to sue me
byu/geogirl1997 inInsurance
Posted by geogirl1997
8 Comments
You’re correct. If they have your insurance information you have absolutely no obligation to talk to them anymore. Just let your insurance handle it and let them know if you get sued.
You pay insurance to do this kind of work. Let them handle it, they will figure out who is at fault. You have nothing to worry, the insurance knows exactly how to handle this. You can move on.
If it’s a minor accident and likely to be below your policy limits, then you have nothing to worry about. You have notified your insurer, and your only job now is to cooperate with your company’s adjuster and provide any information or assistance that they need.
If you are still in contact with the claimant, stop communicating with them. It will only confuse matters. If they sue, the litigation will probably show you as the defendant, because they are claiming against you, but most of the time it doesn’t come to that, especially if it was a minor accident.
Claims adjusters deal with these types of situations all the time. Oftentimes it comes to nothing; other times they negotiate a settlement. Unless the claimant is asking for an amount that is higher than your coverage limit, you don’t have any risk here, other than possibly some inconvenience to help the insurance company defend you.
Don’t worry – it will all be okay.
If they sue you, your insurance company will defend you. No need to worry unless you have woefully low property damage liability limits and their car is worth in excess of that. Even then, you almost certainly have nothing to worry about. Just let your insurance company handle it all.
They are probably bitter that they have to pay for their own car and lashing out. Nobody who is actually gonna sue tells you that they are gonna sue you. They are broke.
Your insurance has the duty to defend, and they are more qualified in this than you. Tell Bozo once to deal exclusively with your insurer, then respond to nothing. If he’s serious and serves legal papers on you, give those to your insurer. Talk only to your insurer, and cooperate with them in everything.
You need to quit talking bud or gal.
Only talk to your insurance and only after you’ve wrote down exactly what happened truthfully and correctly and then speak only to your own insurance company(who has their own attorneys to defend the claims) or get your own lawyer .
No one has suggested that you file a claim on the other person’s insurance. Go on the offensive. The other party has. This assumes you believe that you are not fully at fault.