by Guest » Fri Jun 13, 2008 04:24 am
June 12, 2008
My family was recently hit head-on by a person who has no insurance and was found to be intoxicated by at least 3 different drugs. All of mine went to the hospital (2 via Life Flight). My wife is hurting pretty bad but forces herself to go to work and tolerate the pain. At night she cries in pain. We have UM insurance 50,000/100,000 bodily injury. What happens when this limit is reached? Are we just "screwed"? Does anyone have any advice on what good would it do to bring a law suit against an uninsured party that probably has nothing to contibute since there was no insurance.
Does anyone know of a situation where an uninsured motorist was successfully sued and there was an actual recovery?
Thanks..
CB007
My family was recently hit head-on by a person who has no insurance and was found to be intoxicated by at least 3 different drugs. All of mine went to the hospital (2 via Life Flight). My wife is hurting pretty bad but forces herself to go to work and tolerate the pain. At night she cries in pain. We have UM insurance 50,000/100,000 bodily injury. What happens when this limit is reached? Are we just "screwed"? Does anyone have any advice on what good would it do to bring a law suit against an uninsured party that probably has nothing to contibute since there was no insurance.
Does anyone know of a situation where an uninsured motorist was successfully sued and there was an actual recovery?
Thanks..
CB007
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 06:58 am Post Subject:
First, your carrier can/may/is entitled to recovery against that uninsured person. So they would also be entitled to anything you collect. I doubt this person is going to have anything of value. You could always higher an attorney and obtain a judgement and attach it to anything that he owns. Some states may allow you to garnish his wages. But again, you'd need to pay an attorney to do this for you.
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:31 am Post Subject:
One other thought...do you have more than one vehicle? In some states UM is stackable...meaning if you have three cars all with 50/100 then the possibility of 150/300 in available coverage...Just something you might want to check...Try your states Dept of Ins website, or read your policy...If you can't find it let us know your state and we can try and find it...
As tcope mentioned, you can't give away your carriers right to recovery...But I guess you could (with your carrier) secure say a million dollar judgement, then if this slim ball ever did come into some money, (like lottery or something) you could collect on the judgement...but short of a giant win-fall doubtful you'd ever collect on the judgement...Who were the owners of the vehicle? Anyone you can bring in that way?
p.s. I'm so sorry you all had this happen..is everyone doing ok now? Except your poor wife, is she getting some type of care for her pain?
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:27 pm Post Subject:
Hi, see I don't know whether you have heard of a circumstance wherein a driver has caused damages since he was driving under the influence (DUI). This is a condition usually known to mark the fatal impacts of consuming alcohol on driving. But it would also count on the ill effects of consuming drugs irrespective of its being legal or illegal.
I'm glad to let you know that the way a driver gets penalized for a DUI alcohol case would be the same as that in a DUI drugs case. It is sometimes state specific for a DMV to have jurisdiction for penalizing the influenced driver.
Some states would not even need administrative hearings with state DMVs in order to take steps against such drivers following court proceedings. Such actions may extend to any limit including penalties imposed on driving privileges.
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