I wasn’t sure where to put this, it seems rather mundane but I do have a couple of questions. Mods, please move if need be.
So this morning Mrs. Lebeef answered a knock at the door after I had left for work. A process server handed her a summons for trial. For me. For an accident that happened in August of 2002 that I was not at fault for, nor cited.
Backstory, I stopped pretty hard on the freeway in Colorado Springs during a traffic jam, the SUV behind me didn’t stop nearly as fast, rear-ended me and drove me into the car in front of me. Four cars total involved in the accident and the driver in the front is suing all of us for negligence. Like I said, I wasn’t at fault, and filed a claim with my own insurance company, who then went after the other companies. I’ve never been named in a lawsuit before, which my friends all consider rather remarkable.
My question, should I put all my faith and trust in the insurance company I was with at the time? Should I be hiring my own lawyer? I’m not looking for legal advice here, just advice period. I honestly don’t know what to do. I’ve called the insurance company, and they have to pull the claim and reports out of the archives, so I won’t have any paperwork until tomorrow afternoon.
Insert usual “I am not anal” disclaimer here. (Did I spell that correctly?)
But I was under the impression that the summons had to be put into your hand. Your hand; not your wife or a co-worker (or a cow-orker). Of course, that will only delay the inevitable.
Notify your insurance company now; they may also be able to advise you on the summons. This sounds to me like a driver looking for deep pockets, and they probably want all the insurers to pay “go away” money rather than incur legal fees.
I was in an accident over twenty years ago. My car was hit from behind, turned sideways and driven into a guardrail; the car was totalled but there was no injury to me. The young guy behind me who hit me was in turn hit by a woman behind him; also no injury to him, but she hit her head. She sued him for what I can only assume is for being in her way. I was in contact with the guy’s insurance company to testify on his behalf, but they ended up settling some small sum with her anyway. Lawyers look at diminishing returns rather than justice.
I used to work in a law firm in Colorado…State law had it that you could lay the summons at the feet of the person and walk away. There ain’t no easy way out of appearing in court in Colorado.
Did the summons specifically state that you were being sued, or just that you were being requested to attend as a witness? I’ve been summoned to just be the witness to the others guy’s problems, not necessarily my own.
In any case, you have plenty of opportunities to find out more information in the weeks to come (insurance company, the court filings, etc). Then, after you know more, make the decision on the lawyer. If you are asked to sign anything or give a statement or anything that requires you to verify or ???, then do call a lawyer, cuz you don’t want to give up more information than you are absolutely required to. Information is power.
If anyone, anyone, anyone, excuse me, let me repeat that, ANYONE asks you to give a statement or talk about the case (phone, in person, ???), tell them that they must speak with your lawyer. Even if you don’t have one yet. Get their info and tell them you will get back to them. Protect the information to protect yourself. Anyone also covers your insurance company, because they will look for a way to weasel out of any payment, and if you happen to say that you were distracted by the radio or ???, then you could be screwed. If their lawyer speaks with you, you might want a lawyer, because their lawyer is for them, not necessarily you. Get it? They might seem like they are on your side, but until you find out how much they represent you, keep careful.
Play it simple, play it stupid, wait until you have the information you need, then make decisions.
I 've contacted the insurance company, and should be hearing back from them tomorrow.
The summons specifically stated that I was a defendant, not a witness.
The Lawyer for the plaintiff is Frank “The Strongarm” Azar, so I’m assuming it’s a fishing expedition. I’m getting a laywer of my own within a day or so. The trouble is I can’t really afford a couple hundred dollars an hour.
I haven’t had any contact with anyone involved yet, but the process server did contact my parents pretending to be an old service buddy looking for me. Weasel.
The waiting really is the hardest part.
Tahnks for the advice so far, I really am in over my head here.
Read over the summons and complaint very carefully. There will probably be at least one thing (probably, you’ll need to file an Answer with the court) that you must do within X (usually 30) days of being served or face adverse summary judgment. In other words, miss the deadline, and it’s all over.
Are there any law schools in your area? Check around - you may be able to find a drop-in clinic for a little free advice. Not saying you’ll want to handle this in pro per (by yourself, without a lawyer) but it’s a good way to get a second opinion, so to speak.
From the brief description you gave, this sounds like a really stupid suit. Was the driver at the front of the pile-up uninsured? Why is she suing anyone at all? She should have been “made whole” by her own insurance company.
Oops. In rereading, I realize that I should have emphasized the word “your” so that it wouldn’t appear that I was implying that it had to be in one’s hand. I was referring to the person who was served. I know that process servers would occasionally appear in our office (an engineering firm) to serve a summons at the front desk, and the papers would be ignored if they were not delivered face to face. I think that there was always the implication that they had been “lost”. But, like I mentioned before, it will only delay the inevitable.
The advice about lawyers is good, as is the advice about not commenting to anyone. In addition, if you had to file an accident report, you may want to dig it out and refresh your memory as what you said; it is mandatory to file this report in Massachusetts and you are subject to perjury laws in your report. If the police investigated, can you get a copy of their accident report? Make sure your lawyer has these and any other documentation you have about the accident. You know that the driver who initiated this suit has that
Does (did) your policy cover this sort of thing? If so, while the cautions stated above are good ones that you should heed, most of the time the insurance company is the intended victim because of their deep pockets. Unless you are well-to-do, it is unlikely that they are after you. But, be defensive all the same.
Do you own your own home? And does Colorado have the equivalent of a Homestead Exemption? In Massachusetts that is a device that helps to shelter one’s primary residence from lawsuits. We file it at the Registry of Deeds.
Call the Public Defenders office and see if you qualify for one of those since you are the defendant. I used a public defender in Jefferson county for a car accident I was in (caused) while delivering medical supplies near Golden. She wasn’t happy with me and told me so “Most of my clients are gang members that shoot people, this is a Reckless Driving ticket.” But, legally, she had to represent me. Plus there are the local legal centers and possible law students to contact. Don’t spend your money yet, make calls. And don’t worry…TV shows notwithstanding…if it is as you said, 99% of the time you can just answer all questions asked by the lawyer or in court with “I was just sitting in traffic and got pushed into the car ahead of me by the guy behind me.” The burden of proof is on them. If this is all you say, what can they get you with?
Plynck I knew what you meant, but I was trying to make the point that that stuff really doesn’t matter in Colorado. A neighbor across the street was summoned but refused to answer the door for the guy. The guy saw my mom and me in our yard, asked us who we were (scribble scribble) and if the lady across the street was Mrs. X (scribble scribble when we answered yes) and then he walked to her house and stuck the summons in the mailbox and left. Colorado doesn’t play any games like that, they have no problem what-so-ever of throwing you in jail for failure to appear. A girl I worked with spent a whole weekend in jail for failure to appear on parking ticket violations that she swears she was never informed of. And this was in the Arapahoe County jail which is (was) in the middle of nowhere, so when she got out she had to walk a couple miles to get to a bus stop to get home.
well, i haven’t been named in a lawsuit today; though myself & my sister were named in a civil lawsuit last year, and were called by my brother’s lawyers to testify on his behalf.
either his lawyers didn’t do their homework, or more likely, he flat out lied to them - but long story short, my sister & self ended up telling the court many things my brother never wanted on the record.
i’d be more specific, but it’s a fairly recent case, and details could publically identify not just myself, but other family & friends who i’m sure want to remain anonymous.
And NurseCarmen is exactly right, in part. The insurance company’s lawyers are there to protect the insurance company’s assets. That being said, since you were insured at the time of the accident, you fall under “the insurance company’s assets”.
Now, if the lawsuit is successful (and I doubt it could be), and you didn’t contravene the terms of the insurance contract (ie, you were drunk, or racing, etc.), then the insurance company has to pay out the judgement on your behalf. That’s what they are there for. That’s why you buy insurance. That being said, they certainly don’t want to pay out, so they send very good lawyers to argue on your behalf.
I strongly suggest NOT hiring a lawyer at this point. The insurance company MUST defend this action, by law. That’s one of the things you buy with an insurance policy. Usually, the only time I’d advise one of my clients to hire their own lawyer is if things have gone very badly off the rails, and they actually want to sue the insurance company.
There’s a couple of other insurance people on the boards (I know Inigo Montoya is an actual claims adjuster, and he might pop in), so he might be able to advise you from the insurance company side.
Good luck, and don’t worry. Lawsuits generally always name everyone and their brother. You weren’t at fault, so you’ll be fine.
IAAL, not yours and not licensed in your jurisdiction. What follows isn’t legal advice, but then, nothing you’ve been told so far in this thread is either. Moreover, some of what you’ve been told is wildly inaccurate. Take this, for example:
Unless I am badly mistaken, you have not been arrested for a crime. Although we do call both a criminal defendant and a civil defendant “the defendant,” that does not mean that your constitutional right to a free legal defense when accused of certain crimes carries over to the civil context. Calling the Public Defenders office – the people who are charged with providing said criminal defense – will likely make their day. The job that they do is long, hard and generally unappreciated, so any humor we can toss their way is probably a good thing.
My WAG is that whoever’s insurance is responsible isn’t paying up, so the front driver is trying to get paid. The front driver likely must sue everyone; if he just sues car number 2, car number 2’s defense is “not my fault, car number 3 hit me,” and I think you can guess car number 3 and car number 4’s defense. With all four drivers in the lawsuit, no one can point to the “missing” defendant and say, “But it’s his fault!”
Talk to the lawyer your insurance company hires for you. Find out the limits of your policy (i.e., how much the insurance company will pay out) and how much you could be liable for, to determine whether there’s a chance a judgment could go over the amount of your policy. Sounds unlikely to me, since it sounds like just property damage. Get a lawyer if you want to. Or talk to one for free or cheap, by contacting your local bar association and asking about their lawyer referral service. Usually through that service, you can talk to a lawyer (who is licensed in your jurisdiction) about your specific problem for about $30 for the first half hour. Best of luck.
At this point in time, I don’t think that you need to hire a lawyer. While the lawyer works for the insurance company, he also has an ethical duty to you since you are also his client. How much are you being sued for?
I would go with the insurance company lawyer for now. This kind of case is his bread and butter, chances are he or she does this all of the time and will know exactly how to proceed.
The insurance company doesn’t want to pay out more than they have to. They may settle with the person or they may fight it out in court.
Honest truth, Campion, I had a Public Defender after a traffic ticket in Colorado. I was never arrested. I was named in a lawsuit by the people I hit that were trying to get money from me and/or their full-coverage insurance company (the car I was driving was owned by the company I worked for and they had let the insurance lapse). Yes, the lawyer made fun of me, yes, she did say that about normally defending gangsters, yes, she represented me. Maybe Colorado State law regarding this is/was different. Maybe the lawsuit could have meant jail-time if I was convicted of negligence or ??? It has been 15 years, I really don’t remember the details. But it all began with a rear-end accident during a blizzard while I was delivering medical supplies…
I was in a car accident three years ago, struck from behind by another driver at high speed. The other driver only carried the minimum insurance, $25,000, and my medical bills alone were easily twice times that amount.
I didn’t want to sue her, but my lawyer said it was part of the process. We would sue her insurance company, and her, personally. He swore to me that she would not end up losing her home or anything like that, but I still felt bad about it. We ended up settling for the max her policy would pay out and then sued my insurance company to recover my costs through my Underinsured Driver policy.
If the driver who ultimately caused the accident only had minimum coverage, something like this could be happening.
Dante pretty much nailed it in one. I got in touch again with the insurance adjuster who worked on my initial claim, and he said that since I was insured with them (USAA) at the time, they will handle everything, from representation to filing the Answer in court. He also said he would keep me up to date on everything that was going on.
Yay!
I do have another question for the legal types around the Dope…why are the summons/complaints so obtuse? I’m assuming its on purpose, but there was no phone number of the presiding court, no instructions on what exactly I’m supposed to do, nothing. The only real contact information was for the plaintiff’s lawyers, and it seems like a really bad idea to contact them.
thanks for all you advice/words of encouragement. I love this place!
I see I’m a bit late in responding but I’ll chime in just because. I am not a lawyer, am however a claims adjuster, so I am very familiar with the process.
The attorney should keep you updated on the progress of the case. If he doesn’t, call him/her once a month just to keep in the loop. Ask to be kept informed of all demands and negotiations. The first responsibility of attorney retained by your carrier, should be to defend you. While the carrier has the right to spend any amount under the policy limits to settle the claim, you have a right to know what’s going on.
Each jurisdiction has language settled upon long ago regarding how a valid complaint should read. Lawyers often just use what has worked for years changing the allegations to match the facts of the case at hand. If you’re dealing with a high volume ‘plaintiff’s mill’ you’ll even find cut and paste errors where they have names wrong, dates wrong and even accident details wrong.
The service page, where you or your wife signed, should have some instructions as to where to file the answer and the amount of time you have to do so. That is the only place you would find it.
Depending on where you are, the summons itself is done by the clerk of the court where the case has been filed. The complaint itself would be the legal pleading. That will just tell you the court where it has been filed and is done by the Plaintiff’s lawyer.
Also, the lawyers should be getting back to you to discuss what happened, and to go over the allegations of the Complaint with you in order that they may prepare the Answer. After this you will have discovery. They will serve you with Interrogatories and with Document Production Requests (maybe). They may also serve you with Requests for Admissions. This will be done through the insurance defense attorneys. They will also in turn serve them with Discovery.
They will represent you all the way through trial and appeal if they deem it necessary.
