QuestionQUESTION: Last October my son took out our ford truck with his friend and hit the rear right bumper of a Ford Econovan parked around the block. He then veered across the street and took out a portion of another persons fence. My son was 16, had no driving permit or license. Our insurance company covered the damages to my vehicle but refused coverage for the other vehicle based on non-permissive use. Our insurance advised us and also the other party's insurance agent that he should place a claim through uninsured motorists. Prior to this notification the owner of the other vehicle came to our house and handed us a repair bill for over $5000 along with bills for repairs that were made the week prior to the accident because his car did not pass inspection and told us that his insurance company told him the van was totalled. He said to us that we could handle this whatever way we wanted. A few weeks passed and the other party contacted us and wanted to know what we were going to do about the damages. At that time we asked him if he was putting it through uninsured motorists and we were told they didn't think they had that. Within a week we received a letter from their attorney requesting payment for the damages. With that we contacted our attorney and presented him with all the paperwork and pictures we had so far. Our attorney tried to contact their attorney but received no response. Our attorney sent an expert over to their house to look at the car to obtain a value for it. After returning with the value our attorney sent their attorney a letter stating that without going into great detail about what the inspector had noted, that we would offer them $1000 for the damages and that was being generous. This was in January. Again we heard nothing from their attorney. The a couple of months later the wife came to our door and asked our daughter for our phone number because she wanted to know what was going on with the car. She called us and my husband told her that we heard nothing back on the letter. She called again and said that her attorney advised her to call and try to settle with us and she said she wanted $1800. We called our attorney back and told him this and he told us absolutely not, we were being more than generous with our $1000 offer. She then tried to tell my husband that the car had an oil leak because of our son hitting the back bumper and the car was undrivable. Please note that the expert who saw the car noted in the letter that there was a major oil leak amoung other things like rust, dents, spray painted quarter panel and so on. She then told us that she would have to take it further and we were recently sent a letter from small claims court being sued for $2000. Our lawyer advised us that he will not go to court for that small amount but would send the person who went out to value the car for him. I forgot to mention previously that in the letter sent by our attorney he also stated that we may not be liable because our sons actions were not due to our negligence. Another question is that if the vehicle is valued at $2000 and the judge orders us to pay that, are we entitled to the vehicle or is this person able to get the value of the car and keep the car also. I just want to mention that we have no problem paying for what was obviously our sons fault, but we do not want to be ripped off either. We did replace the fence that he damaged with no questions asked. We just feel that this person is trying to get more than he is entitled to. Please advise
ANSWER: Hi Cheryl,
Don't despair: when I was 16 I also hit a car on my first attempt at driving.
There is nothing for me to advise inasmuch as you have a very good position in this. I do have two comments, however. The first is to reaffirm that YOU might be free from any need to pay any damages, unless your state has a statute that states that parents are liable for the torts of their children. Those are usually limited to around $2,000 to $3,000.
But since you did not know about the car being taken, you might not have any liability, as your attorney suggested.
Second, I will tell you to ask if there is a format to make an offer of judgment to the plaintiff whereby you can get your costs of the expert paid back to you. Sometimes that can work to your advantage, and your attorney can help you with it. The reason is that you may be able to ask the court to pay the costs of your expert coming to trial.
Here is how it works. Make a letter called offer of judgment. File it with the clerk of the court. Send a copy at the same time to the plaintiff. In the offer of judgment letter, you will recite that based upon the enclosed report from your expert, you will offer the amount of the damages, $1,000.
Also tell them that this offer must be accepted in writing 5 days before trial. If it is not accepted, then you will ask the court for the costs of the expert report and his time to come to trial.
Final topic: make a history of all the contacts that they had, and your correspondence and especially show how they tried to lie to get more money. Make an outline of the lies and demands that they made. The court will see what kind of people they are.
Best wishes,
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
www.SettlementCentral.Com
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QUESTION: We went to court on june 21 at 9:00 am and the plaintiff did not show up. the judge dismissed the case. received a letter today june 23 that they filed a motion for an oral argument to vacate dismissal/amend answer. reason: there was a confusion about the court date, thought it was 6/22/07 and thats when I came to court. due to alot of medical issues that have occured i honestly got the date confused. what are their chances of having this case reinstated and how long does this usually take. thank you
Answer"reason: there was a confusion about the court date, thought it was 6/22/07 and thats when I came to court. due to alot of medical issues that have occured i honestly got the date confused."
I presume, Cheryl, that this is the language of the plaintiff you slipped in to your question. Here is what I would do.
File an objection and ask for terms and costs to be awarded. The time away from your work is compensable and also the time away from your life is compensable.
The plaintiff is going to be arguing that when the judge dismissed the case, she did not do so "with prejudice". In other words, the claim is dismissed, subject to the right of the plaintiff to refile it. You, on the other hand, should state that when the case is called for trial, the plaintiff HAS TO BE THERE UNLESS HE IS DELAYED FOR GOOD REASON.
This is NOT A HEAD INJURY CASE; the car was unoccupied. The plaintiff cannot use general confusion about some nebulous "medical issues that have occurred" as an excuse for missing the court date. Tell the judge that she ought to have to produce a doctor's report to the EFFECT THAT BOTH OF THEM WERE DISABLED.
TELL THE JUDGE THAT BOTH HUSBAND AND WIFE WERE DEALING IN THIS CLAIM, and if one is incapacitated, how does that make an excuse for the other?
Then launch into a TOTAL HISTORY OF THE BOGUS DEMANDS THAT THEY HAVE MADE, as I suggested above. Show that they both made these demands and contested the valuation of losses and either could come to court. Tell the judge that reopening the case to be refiled would work to your prejudice inasmuch as you cannot easily take off work again, and any other truthful reason you can add.
The judge will decide soon, so get this in writing and send it to the court ASAP.
Good luck
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
www.SettlementCentral.Com
