QuestionDear Rob,
On May 11th, 2010, I was driving eastbound on a street crossing an intersection with yellow lights, the other party was at the intersection westbound on the same street and attempting to make a left turn, he sped up and cut in front of me and my cars front hit his vehicle's right side. The police came and he issued him 2 tickets, one for failure to obey traffic lights and one for failure to yield and I was also given one tickets for failure to obey traffic light, I asked the police I did not run red light and the light was yellow even when the accident happened. He told me since he was not at the scene and he had to issue me a ticket as well but I can protest in court. I only have liability on my insurance and I already made a claim against the other party's insurance company and I was told by the claim handler that they might deny my claim since I got a ticket as well. But I was not supposed to be issued a ticket anyways and I will definitely protest in court. But the insurance company can not deny my claim based on the ticket to me issued by police, can they? Looking forward to your response and thanks so much!
AnswerHello,
From what you have told me, it sounds like the insurance company is attempting to get out of their liability issue by rendering the accident both at fault because both parties were issued a ticket or in the case of the other driver, two tickets.
Yes, they can claim 50% your fault because you too got a ticket. In order to seek compensation on the claim, there will have to be a disposition on your ticket. In the event you win in court on your ticket, you can go back to the insurance company to see what they will pay you.
I would recommend that you retain an attorney for the ticket. As the cop said, he was not there at the time of the crash. I would think a good attorney could make the ticket go away. At that point once the ticket is removed from your record, the same attorney can represent you to get paid on the claim.
