Standard disclaimer: you are not my lawyers, I am not your client, blah, blah.
Due to a miscommunication between me and my inlaws, the insurance on my wifes car was allowed to lapse on feb 14th (Happy valentines day :D)
Car is registered to her parents
Yesterday my stepdaughter allowed her friend with a suspended licence to drive the car. Who yes, of course, what else could happen but, she hit someone trying to make a left turn across 2 lanes of traffic onto a side street.
To make matters even more interesting, stepdaughters friend ran from the scene despite multiple witnesses and stepdaughter(who was passenger in car) tried to tell the police she was driving :rolleyes:
Final result 2 cars damaged, nobody hurt, no insurance.
I am kinda under the assumption that when it all comes down to it, my wife and I will be out a hefty chunk of cash but nothing else. Since our criminal liability would be difficult to connect since we were not operating the vehicle in question.
The Question:
Is there any historical precedent for us somehow dodging financial responsibility for this since the person in question was uninsurable, knew they were uninsurable, and chose to drive anyway via 3rd hand permission from someone who would not have recieved permission to operate the vehicle by my wife or I under any circumstasnces or will it probably unfold as I predict.
Other driver files insurance claim
insurance co sues owner of vehicle since insurance is lapsed (inlaws)
we pay inlaws
we file suit against loser friend hoping to recover a small fragment of what we had to pay out as unlikely as it might seem.
took place in CA
I’m figuring we are pretty much screwed, but any wisdom or helpful web resources the teeming millions might be able to point us at would be much appreciated.
Thanks.