Auto Insurance Claims: accident claim not enough what can I do, underinsured motorist coverage, asset check

Question
hello I had a car accident in the state of Colorado on October of 09 in which I am not guilty at all the girl that hit me was underage at the time of the accident  but my bills are aprox. 90K I have an attorney working on my case and we just had an appt. last week which he explained to me that all I have is 25K from the lady that hit me from her insurance  and additional 25K from my insurance from UIM my attorney says that is all that he can do. only get the 50K but that doesn't cover not even half of my bills since he gets the third of the 50 K that leaves me with only 32K he wants me to sing the release form to the insurance for them to pay the 25K and I am basically sinning that the case is settle and the lady that hit me is free of all charges now and in the future but I don't want to do that I want to see what is the possibility to be able to receive the 25K from there insurance and still be able to sue the lady on my own with out releasing her of anything all bills I have after some are cover by the 32K. is there more money I can get from the insurance since there limit is only 25K but my accident worths more than that? or is there something I can do to sue the lady with out relising her of any charge?

Answer
Hi Desperate,

If the other driver only purchased 25k in coverage, then that is all there is to get from their insurance company. Based on what you said, you are also getting 25k from your underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy because that is all the coverage you purchased. So the total amount of insurance coverage available is the 50k from both insurance companies.

You can ask your attorney to conduct an asset check to see if the responsible party has any money, property, investment accounts, etc.. If they do not then it is unlikely you will ever receive any more money. Even if you sued the responsible person and won your case and were awarded lats say, $150k, you will be given a judgement. A judement is simply a piece of paper that says that someone owes you money. It is then up to you to chase that person for years trying to garnish wages or confiscate property that they may obtain. So fileing suitis not a guarantee of payment, it is simply a license to hunt. Your attorney has likely done a basic asset search already and determined there is nothing to get. So will likey not be willing to file suit when there is no payday at the end.

It is unfortunate but you will need to try to negotiate with your medical providers to see if that will settle for 30% of what you owe. You can ask your attorney to assist in that process.

Although it will not help in this situation, you should consider raising your insurance coverage so this does not happen again and tell everyone you know to do the same.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh