Re: ping...cindy

Almost forgot, here's a couple day shots of the damage to our car:

Cindy '96 laser red auto GTS

No, he is from Sweden. Swedes tend to be very calm and indifferent about things like this...unlike us Americans. :-) That's not to say he doesn't care about this incident, because he certainly does. If the drunk had smashed my Mustang I would have hunted him down and bashed his skull in with a...heavy object. ;-)

Yes, I must remind myself of this as I sometimes get caught up in the recovery of our property damage. It could have been ALOT worse. I just hope the cops find this scumbag and get him off the streets for awhile.

Thanks, we're going to need it. My husband did manage to talk to the owner of the SUV. He knew about it, but said his lawyer told him he wasn't responsible for this accident. He claims he is still insured with Geico (sp?), although they denied it to us on the phone?!!? Are they allowed to do that?? Is there some way he can weasel out of this? The police told us he IS responsible for this accident, as it is his vehicle and he is the insured. The owner said he was going to call his insurance company and he would get back to us within two days...approximately when the drunk promised to settle with us off the record. So we'll see!

Cindy '96 laser red auto GTS

Cindy,

The registered owner and his insurance company are responsible for the settlement of your car accident (contact your insruance company and let them know what is going on as well, they have special investigators for this scenario). The owner and his insurance company then need to go after the actual driver to settle up on that end of life. Plain and simple, if not almost cut and dry. If the owner of the car states differently, have your attorney send him and his insurance company a nice little letter stating what is, and what is not case law in the state of California....................

Bill S.

C. Olofss> Not much. We found out the drunk driver is not the registered owner of the

We have called our insurer too many times to count by now. They say the same as everybody else; that the owner of the SUV is responsible, whether he himself plowed into our vehicle or not. The owner still claims Geico is his insurance company, but Geico still denies the premium was paid...unless that is standard procedure to dance around insurance claims?

The owner and his insurance company then need to go

I'd love to, unfortunately, we don't have cash for a lawyer. If money were no object, we would have done that the day after the accident. And now it is looking as if we will be getting ADP value for the car, MINUS our $1000 deductible...which should give us about $5-6,000 to replace a $9,000 car.

Cindy '96 laser red auto GTS

Perhaps a small claims action will get things started for you. If your system is similar to the Canadian system, you will find that the court clerks are helpful in preparing the material and it is not expensive. Again in my area the dollar limit is $10,000. This may be the same in your state. In the claim name everyone even remotely connected to the case. The driver, the vehicle owner, your insurance company and their insurer. If you can find our where he was drinking name the person who gave it to him, the bar owner, the server, the host, etc. I'm sure you get the picture.

Make it a project. What will likely happen is that someone will request a pretrial settlement conference which will most likely bring all the parties together. These are conferences informal and in Canada are chaired by a judge. I've seen this work well for the Plaintiff (you). And no, I'm not a lawyer, but I've been around the block a few times.

Good idea. Hell, make an appearance on Judge Joe Brown or Judge Judy.

To be serious, small claims court may be the way for you to go.

investigators

Very good advice, Richard. Thank you! However, IIRC, small claims only yields $5000 in California.

We had thought of setting up a meeting with this guy, and we are going to offer him to settle out of court. We will go through the insurance company for whatever they give us for the car and ask the owner of the car to compensate us the rest of the REAL value.

I'm hoping he accepts, as my husband is dead set on a lawsuit otherwise.

Cindy '96 laser red auto GTS

investigators

Cindy,

Sorry to hear about your situation. I hope it works out.

Let me tell a story that's kind of related(?) that might lighten the mood a little.

In 1984 I had a 1980 turbocharged 4cyl. Mustang (ran like crap). I had a fender bender and took it to a body shop. I rented a 1979 4cyl. n/a Mustang (ran circles around mine) while mine was in the shop.

When it was time to pick up my car I had my cousin go with me to drive the rental car back. I was going to drive my car as it tended to stall when the engine was cold, and I was used to keeping it running (most of the time).

We pulled out of separate exits from the parking lot, with him about 100' behind me. My car stalled, he had the pedal to the metal and was watching the speedo rising instead of watching the road and next thing you know... Well, he swerved at the last second so he sideswiped me instead of hitting head on. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't pretty either.

I assumed that my cousin's insurance would cover the damage since he hit me. After several weeks, my agent asked me to come to his office. When I got there he seemed a little confused. He told me that the insurance company had determined that I was responsible for the accident because it was my rental car. The confusing part was that their report said I was considered to be the driver of both vehicles, therefore I had collided with myself!

BlueGator

That is pretty funny, actually. :-) Thanks for the story.

Cindy '96 laser red auto GTS