Auto Insurance Claims: Insurance Claim Coverage Question, claim coverage, driving on a suspended license

Question
QUESTION: Hi, my boyfriend was at a bar with his friend. This friend drove our truck to the bar but had to leave early. My boyfriend decided to stay behind because a girl had offered to drive him back to his friends house because she was not drinking and he was drunk. When they left the bar, she ended up crashing the vehicle into a wall and taking off before the police arrived. The police are charging my boyfriend with DUI and driving on a suspended license. The insurance company is saying that they will not cover the claim because we do not know who was driving and that no one lets a stranger drive their vehicle. Can they do that?

ANSWER: Hi Yolanda,

No they can not do that. If you have insurance it must pay for the damage regardless of who was driving. The only exception is that in some policies there is a coverage exclusion if the driver is charged with a DUI. You should check your policy or call your insurance company to see if that is the case and is the real reason they are denying coverage.


I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi and thank you for your answer. However, if he wasn't driving and the person that was driving was not drinking. The cops are charging him with driving because he was the only one at the scene. We will be pleading not guilty in court and hopefully winning this case. Can they still exclude it because he is listed on the police report as the driver? And if they do exclude it, what happens if we will the case in court. I thought people were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and I am finding this not to be true.

Answer
Hi Yolanda,

Although I'm sure this is not the case in your boyfriends situation, you have to understand that the police often encounter people who when caught driving drunk, try to say that someone else was driving their vehicle.  In this case it does not look good for your boyfriend since the driver ran away after the accident. There are no witnesses and he does not know who it was that was driving his vehicle. I know that you said he was going to plead not guilty, but, unless he can prove in a court of law that he was not driving he will be found guilty. The only way to prove that he was not driving would be to find the girl that was driving, get her to testify in court that she was driving and ran away after the accident and be willing to be arrested for leaving the scene of an accident.

It's an unfortunate situation but I think your boyfriend should be prepared for the DUI charge to stand.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh