i was in an accident and wasn't satisfied with insurance

Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 11:57 pm Post Subject: same

i guess i was cut off i was saying i was in an accident only offered 50% by the other persons insurance company. was completely other drivers fault imo. took to small claims court and won. my question is what happens next who pays me and when do i get it if i get anything.

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 02:08 am Post Subject:

You now have a judgment, nothing more. You can attach that judgment to certain assets as allowed by your state.

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 02:18 am Post Subject:

The judgement just says what the other party owes you do to the court ruling. Whether or not you get anything depends on whether the other party has anything in terms of assests to give you or liquidate and give you the proceeds. You could be waiting a long time if this is coming from an individual and not a company, however either way it could be a long time. Good luck with it.

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 04:33 am Post Subject:

Ceclark, unfortunately what the other posters have mentioned is correct. The judgement would only suggest that the other guys owes to you for the damages. But it doesn't guarantee a payment. You may have to seek the service of professional debt/judgement collectors for the recovery.

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 04:47 am Post Subject:

It depends on the state regs but if you won against the company or the individual as to who the money will come from.

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 11:41 am Post Subject:

What EXACTLY is the judgement for?

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 07:14 pm Post Subject: judgement

hi the judgement is for 1. medical bills.6,000 2. lost wages 500.00 3. price of rims(insurance wouldn't cover them) 900.00 4. price difference of car (owed more than insurance company would cover didnt have gap coverage won't make that mistake again) 1500. nothing to do with pain or suffering just losses that i incurred. i read somewhere that if you have insurance you are indemified, that if sued in small claims your insurance has to cover your lawsuit i'm wondering if this is true i am looking at my own insurance policy to see if i was covered it is kind of scary knowing someone can sue me if my insurance disagrees with the settlement also it goes against the person and company on their credit report which is unfair but i would have not even went this far they never even made me an offer to settle and it has been over two year i made my suit the day before it was about to be too late!

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 07:37 pm Post Subject:

It seems that your insurance company already paid what they owed (ACV and excluded aftermarket items). So you cannot collect even more from your _own_ carrier.

I'm guessing that you filed suit against the other person in small claims court and that they did not bother to let their carrier know.

Since you filed your property damage claim with your own carrier, they have a right to collect on what they paid. You obtained a judgment for what you consider your out of pocket expenses and not what your carrier paid but your carrier may disagree. If you were to collect, your carrier might take the stance that they have a right to a percentage of that money as anything paid on the loss goes toward the loss as a whole... which includes what they paid. This could be a matter of law as I see the other view... that your only collecting what is owed to _you_... if your carrier wants to collect their money then they can pursue their own recovery. Tricky situation but unless then _ask_ for anything from you, I'd say you should probably just keep anything you collect.

The other problem is that it sounds like the other party never told their carrier that they were being sued. If they had, their carrier would have provided them a defense and probably sent an attorney to court. If you were to submit your judgement to that carrier now, they might deny their insured coverage as their insured is required to let them know of any lawsuits field. So the other carrier would probably deny their insured coverage which still leaves you to collect from the at fault party.

What state did the accident occur in? I'm wondering if 50% liability would bar you from recovery.

You may want to submit the judgement to the other person's carrier to see if they might make a payment on it. They other should make a payment or deny their insured coverage. They can't just ignore it. Their policy with their insured states that they will pay for amounts their insured becomes legally obligated to pay. Certainly a judgement makes their insured legally obligated to pay! But as I mentioned, they will probably deny their insured coverage. If it sounds like they might, perhaps you might be willing to see if they would settle with a partial payment to you. Keep in mind that this might complicate recovery that your carrier might be pursuing.

If all above fails, you can file a Wit with the court to compel the other party to tell you of their assets. This differs from state to state so you'd have to figure this one out yourself.

You might also want to look into hiring a collection company. They would probably take the case for a percentage of any settlement. So they would only charge you if they collected something.

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 09:05 pm Post Subject: cali

hi i'm from california. the trucking did have all the paper work from the insurance company unfortunately in cali you can't have an attorney for small claims court so i'm unsure if they told the insurance company or not but thank you for the advice i will be faxing maililng a judgement to their insurance company as soon as i get a copy i suppose i have to go the the courthouse and pay for it.

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:18 am Post Subject:

unfortunately in cali you can't have an attorney