Need legal help

J

JaCkaL829

it was my first time...
Hey guys,



Haven't been on the boards lately as I've had quite a 'roller coaster' of a summer. Anyway, yesterday morning my sister was driving me home from a body shop where I dropped my car off to be repaired, that's whole other story. On our way back we had a green light as we approached the intersection and my sister proceeded to go through it. Some guy totally ran a red light and smashed into us. Luckily, nobody was majorly hurt, but it's safe to say the car is totaled. Both airbags went off windshield shattered the front end totally destroyed. We we're extremely shaken up and had some bruises. Luckily we have a witness who saw what happen. We initially refused to go to the hospital, but after really looking at the aftermath decided to go in. I guess it was all the adrenaline that we didn't feel the pain just yet. At the hospital I ended up getting treated for muscle pain, especially in my foot and chest. My sister got treated for minor bruising, etc. My foot is still in pain even though the X-ray was good, so I'm going to the Dr on Friday.



Now that you know what happened, I'm just wondering what kind of legal action should be taken? I already called our lawyer (someone within the family) and we have an appointment to see him sometime next week. My dad is saying it's a waste because auto insurance covers it all, but I would prefer to build up a case against this guy and get as much as possible. What he did was straight negligence. I'm not trying to be an a$$ but I was quite upset that he really put our lives in jeopardy, not to mention it was right next to the high school.



I'd just like to get your take on it. I've been in car accidents but this one really scared the s#it out of me. The fact that a person can be so reckless is extremely frightening/scary. The guy never said anything to us or acknowledged us at the scene of the accident or the hospital, and quite frankly I was going to approach him. I'm not sure if he got a citation or not, I'll see when I get the police report. It sucks that I'm still shaken up and don't feel 100% comfortable driving even though I still believe I'm a good driver to this day, and shouldn't be concerned.



Any advice/input on the topic would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks!
 
JohnnyDaJackal said:
I'd just like to get your take on it. I've been in car accidents but this one really scared the s#it out of me. The fact that a person can be so reckless is extremely frightening/scary. The guy never said anything to us or acknowledged us at the scene of the accident or the hospital, and quite frankly I was going to approach him. I'm not sure if he got a citation or not, I'll see when I get the police report. It sucks that I'm still shaken up and don't feel 100% comfortable driving even though I still believe I'm a good driver to this day, and shouldn't be concerned.
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Well, it was probably smart of the other guy not to acknowlege, or say anything to you. Even if I KNOW I am not at fault, I am keeping my mouth shut in that situation.



If it was an accident, then I would let insurance take care of it...obviously making sure your sister doesn't get screwed when they pay her for her car, pay for your medical bills, etc...



I guess as long as the guy didn't do it intentionally, I wouldn't look to get rich off this, but I am probably in the minority.
 
No offense, but asking those questions on autopia is probably not the best place... but let me take a stab...



First -> What State do you live in? Why? Every State has different laws in how they treat auto accident cases. If your State (like NY) has No-Fault, then you insurance carrier will pay for everything to fix (or replacement value) your car. After that, and something you never see, is a myriad of "subrogation" cases that go on in the Courts between carrier. Your carrier will sue the offending vehicles carrier to be re-imbursed..



Second -> Most States have "threshold laws" in order to sue for bodily injury. In NY, every injured person has to have sustained a "serious injury" in order to sue. Here is how a "serious injury" is defined:



"Serious injury" means a personal injury which results in death; dismemberment; significant disfigurement; a fracture; loss of a fetus; permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system; permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member; significant limitation of use of a body function or system; or a medically determined injury or impairment of a non-permanent nature which prevents the injured person from performing substantially all of the material acts which constitute such person's usual and customary daily activities for not less than ninety days during the one hundred eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment.



If you qualify in your State you could sue.



Third -> If the offending vehicle does not have insurance, you'll have to consult what your State laws permit. Again, in NY we have something called the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, which was created for such cases. However, MVAIC is simply for bodily injury claims.



For property damage, you'd probably have to sue the individual directly and my experience tells me that guys who don't buy insurance, generally don't have any assets and you probably couldn't get anything from him/her.



Fourth -> If you lawyer has represented various members of the Columbo Crime family and he's "well connected", have him make a call and take care of it for you. ;)
 
It'll be tough to get money out of him, unless you were seriously injured *and* he was cited.



The court system is a huge pain, you might be able to scare him into settling for 5-10k if he has the money, but it is not worth it to go to trial. Just the lawyers alone will eat up anything you might win - and you probably won't win if he was just not paying attention and it wasn't a DUI, etc.



A friend of mine got hit by a drunk driver, developed a chronic back injury, and after lawyers fees he only saw 3k out of it.
 
themightytimmah said:
It'll be tough to get money out of him, unless you were seriously injured *and* he was cited.



The court system is a huge pain, you might be able to scare him into settling for 5-10k if he has the money, but it is not worth it to go to trial. Just the lawyers alone will eat up anything you might win - and you probably won't win if he was just not paying attention and it wasn't a DUI, etc.



A friend of mine got hit by a drunk driver, developed a chronic back injury, and after lawyers fees he only saw 3k out of it.
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I don't know of any lawyers who will "eat up anything you might win", since trial lawyers uniformly work on a 1/3 contingency.
 
User Name said:
I don't know of any lawyers who will "eat up anything you might win", since trial lawyers uniformly work on a 1/3 contingency.
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Or 40% if you go to court. Plus any and all expenses come out of the injured party's share. And EVERYTHING has an expense.
 
themightytimmah said:
A friend of mine got hit by a drunk driver, developed a chronic back injury, and after lawyers fees he only saw 3k out of it.
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Only $3k? Sounds like a) his lawyer sucked or b) it wasn't much of a back injury (although I don't see how back injury can be "minor").



Either way, although the other driver was at fault, I would agree with the others stating to leave it to the insurance companies depending on the state that you live in.
 
Heatgain said:
Or 40% if you go to court. Plus any and all expenses come out of the injured party's share. And EVERYTHING has an expense.
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Nope, not in NY or NJ or CT. Straight 33% + expenses, but in a small auto case, expenses would not exceed $1,500.00 (most expenses are for Court fees, medical records and deposition transcripts).



In fact, in the Northeast, medical negligence cases are paid on a sliding scale to the lawyers. It workd about to about 18% of the total.
 
themightytimmah said:
A friend of mine got hit by a drunk driver, developed a chronic back injury, and after lawyers fees he only saw 3k out of it.
Click to expand...



I represented a 25 year old (male) who was rendered a paraplegic in a suit against Ford Motor Company (Explorer case) and the amortized structure payoff to the client was just over $18 million (he will need life long care for certain problems). My firm took a fee that was a tad over $2 million. Not outrageous at all considering 5 years of litigation.
 
User Name said:
I represented a 25 year old (male) who was rendered a paraplegic in a suit against Ford Motor Company (Explorer case) and the amortized structure payoff to the client was just over $18 million (he will need life long care for certain problems). My firm took a fee that was a tad over $2 million. Not outrageous at all considering 5 years of litigation.
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Yep. $400,000 per year on only one case seems reasonable.

<cough>
 
Heatgain said:
Yep. $400,000 per year on only one case seems reasonable.

<cough>
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Yes, with a team of six attorneys working on the case and about 9 support staff. That's a tad over 25k per person. I myself put about 3,000 hours of work into the case.
 
User Name said:
100% right thing to do!!!
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Just curious why is that correct?





I'm from jersey, and I'm sure if my lawyer though it won't be worth it he won't bother to schedule me in. My lawyer apparently is really good with cases like this, so if I can make anything I'm quite confident he can do it. As for the whole auto insurance, my rep called my mom today and it turns out we only have liability on that car, and that our insurance won't pay for anything in terms of the car. So now we are forced to sue the other driver's car insurance for the value of the car and other expense (medical, towing, storing of car, etc.)



Again I'm not sure if he got any citations or not, I really hope he did. I'm going to 'assume' he has decent insurance since he was driving a really nice, restored older mustang. It did have normal plates, not the antique or classics plates.
 
JohnnyDaJackal said:
Just curious why is that correct?





I'm from jersey, and I'm sure if my lawyer though it won't be worth it he won't bother to schedule me in. My lawyer apparently is really good with cases like this, so if I can make anything I'm quite confident he can do it. As for the whole auto insurance, my rep called my mom today and it turns out we only have liability on that car, and that our insurance won't pay for anything in terms of the car. So now we are forced to sue the other driver's car insurance for the value of the car and other expense (medical, towing, storing of car, etc.)



Again I'm not sure if he got any citations or not, I really hope he did. I'm going to 'assume' he has decent insurance since he was driving a really nice, restored older mustang. It did have normal plates, not the antique or classics plates.
Click to expand...



You keep your mouth shut for a number of reasons. First of all, you will be filled with emotion in this situation, and probably won't be thinking and speaking clearly. Secondly, you don't want to be misconstrued as being beligerant, threatening, or apologetic. Also, if there are witnesses around, they can "remember" things that were said differently than what was actually said. This can come back to bite you in the rear in court.



You shouldn't have to "sue" his insurance. If he is listed at fault on the accident report, you file a claim against his insurance company. You did get his insurance info at the accident scene didn't you?
 
JohnnyDaJackal said:
Just curious why is that correct?





I'm from jersey, and I'm sure if my lawyer though it won't be worth it he won't bother to schedule me in. My lawyer apparently is really good with cases like this, so if I can make anything I'm quite confident he can do it. As for the whole auto insurance, my rep called my mom today and it turns out we only have liability on that car, and that our insurance won't pay for anything in terms of the car. So now we are forced to sue the other driver's car insurance for the value of the car and other expense (medical, towing, storing of car, etc.)



Again I'm not sure if he got any citations or not, I really hope he did. I'm going to 'assume' he has decent insurance since he was driving a really nice, restored older mustang. It did have normal plates, not the antique or classics plates.
Click to expand...



I work in Manhattan but have handled many cases in NJ. NJ has two options (which your lawyer will tell you about). You either opt for "written threshold" in NJ or "no threshold". About 99% of NJ opts for the "written threshold" which offers MUCH lower insurance rates, but a virtual inability to sue for personal injuries, UNLESS you are terribly injured. For example, a simple non-displaced fracture is NOT enough.



Since you don't have collision coverage, you'll have to sue to recover the value of the car. You'll need to first prove liability (ie: the other car was 100% at fault). You can do this pretty easy if your independent witness testifies as you have told us. Next, you get to damages...



Most likely, it won't get this far, provided you can get a witness statement and send it to the offending vehicles insurance carrier (assuming he/she has insurance).



As for not saying anything at the scene....



WW got most of it right! In the moments after an accident, people are not thinking rationally. They blurt things out they don't mean and often say things that don't make sense. This can sometimes come back to haunt you.



The first time you should EVER talk about the accident outside of someone you trust is when you give a deposition. Otherwise, keeping quiet is the best policy because you NEVER run the risk of hurting a potential case. I'll give you an example...



Once represnted a guy who lost his wife in an accident with a guy who had been drinking. Guy was Spanish speaking and at the scene (after his wife had been removed by an ambulance) he spoke to the cops about what happened. He tried to speak in his best English. When the cop wrote his police report he wrote it with all kinds of admissions against my client which he 1) never said or 2) said differently.



Luckily, we were able to find 3 witnesses to corroborate the story of my client. If not, his statement would have sunk the case.
 
Little update...



I just got the police report this morning, and it looks like we're kinda screwed. First the guy never even received a citation which I think is total BS. I'm thinking he didn't get one because it wasn't his car, and the owner of the car is part of a 'big name' family in the town so I'm thinking they might have tried to spare him. I will be contacting a friend in the PD and ask him about it, although I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done after the fact, not to mention he is away on vacation now.



2nd is the owner's car turns out to be someone my family lawyer has represented before. So I can't even use him, and would need to go through someone else, which I'm really not comfortable with. At this point we are on the fence about what to do. It looks like a lawsuit won't be strong enough with what happened. We are now considering just contacting the owner's insurance and have them take care of it. I just hope it's not like pulling teeth, which I feel it will be. The only good thing is we have a witness since the other driver is claiming the light was green which is pretty much his word against ours.



It just sucks and it's already turning into a legal disaster with claims and medical bills now.
 
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