Most police reports list insurance information. Call them and see if a claim has been filed. If not, file it yourself. Getting angry isn’t going to help anything.
Do you think the other person was malicious in his actions? Was he drunk? Did he have it in for your husband?
As others have said, there are consequences built into the system. His insurance will go up. If he’s done this before, they may pull his license. If you husband has some pain, well…yeah! He has broken bones and was hit by a car. That will probably be taken into account by the insurance company.
Is your husband casted up yet? My bf broke his humerus a couple years ago and was in severe pain until he got a cast, then it was just a little sore and annoying because the cast was huge. If he has casts and some vicodin he should be doing okay I would think. And his cast went pretty much from his armpit to his fingers, and he still worked and typed every day, he just didn’t want to type much at home after a day of coding.
I would only sue someone if:
they saw that they hit me but sped away
were speeding/on the phone/etc and that is why they hit me and they hurt me quite a bit
the injuries I received were life-changing (caused disability, chronic pain, or breaking a lot of bones which required traction or long hospital stay, etc)
I don’t see this particular situation as much different than any other car accident. You can fracture a tibia and wrist when you are sitting in a car and get into an accident. If the guy stopped and was apologetic and cooperates, why sue him? Just to fuck up his life? There isn’t any indication this guy hit your husband on purpose. Everyone makes mistakes. This guy’s insurance premiums are probably gonna go up and he might have gotten a ticket from the cop. If his insurance pays up, leave the guy alone. He didn’t break your husband’s neck, he didn’t kill him, he didn’t run away. Yeah it is scarier to think about a car hitting a pedestrian, but I don’t believe you would be thinking about suing this guy if he hit your husband while he was driving and the same injuries resulted…
It is totally understandable that you would be upset over an unfortunate occurrance. It is your CHOICE, however, how you proceed from here. And you don’t have to hurry into anything. Your lawyer friend should be able to tell you how long you have before filing suit. May well be 2 years from the date of accident.
You think the driver should be “punished.” And it sounds as tho you think you ought to be the instrument of his punishment.
You have no control over what type of person the other driver is. If he is a decent fellow, he may be “punishing” himself over what he did. And if his insurance company has to pay out, most likely they will “punish” him in their own way. And does he have a moving violation on his license? Is there a fine attached? And you feel all this is not enough punishment because your husband is in pain and you are pissed?
OTOH - if he is a jerk, underinsured with no assets, whatever you do is unlikely to have much of an impact on him.
Like I said - your choice. But I rarely get a good impression of someone who is pursuing litigation to “punish” someone, to “teach them a lesson,” or for “principal.” In the vast majority of cases I more respect people who get on with their lives and direct their energies in what I consider more positive and productive directions.
You certainly have the choice to be “that guy” that Kalhoun’s kid chose not to be. But don’t expect us all to applaud your choice.
Ummm, no. Why?
**THIS. **
Srsly, the driver’s insurance company is who you need to be talking to. It will be on the police report.
Expect a one lump sum settlement when the leg has healed. Medical providers understand how this works, if they have a claim number and an auto insurance company to talk to they won’t pester you about the bills that are racking up. Yopu want to make sure how things work in good old NJ, but generally you can expect to be compensated for:
- medical expenses (either paid to you or directly to the provider)
- physical therapy
- lost wages (including paid sick leave usually–that time off is a benefit and has a value)
- compensation for pain & suffering. This is totally reasonable and expected, and it will be a chunk of the settlement offer you receive. No amount of cash can undo the accident, but money can address the impact this accident has had on lifestyle, any permanent impairment, and yes even “OW! That hurts like a Mo-Fo!” This is a very personalized factor but for a pedestrian getting run over and his leg broken…you’re into 5 figures. $50k is probably the top end of that, but if you don’t hear $15-35k hitting the table THEN you might consider an attorney to handle the court case for you. But remember, an attorney will get something like 30% of the settlement.
I don’t remember seeing anyone suggest that at all. The poster was making the same point I made upthread – you need to put yourself in this guy’s shoes and understand that mistakes do, and will, happen. To him, to you, to everyone. How would you want the other party to proceed if you honestly screwed up?
Like I said, if I accidentally hit someone, I wouldn’t expect to be absolved of the consequences of my actions. No one in this thread has suggested that, at all. This guy will suffer consequences – from his insurance company, from the legal system if this results in a driving offense, from the DMV, and it sounds like from himself.
Mske you wrote:
You write as if you are anxiously awaiting for someone to sue me.
They haven’t put on a cast yet on his wrist or his leg. They splinted the wrist because they told us sometimes you get swelling and the cast will impede healing. We are waiting to see what the orthepedist tells us this afternoon about his leg.
I will see what the driver does next. Neither my husband or myself have all ever (thankfully) been hit by a car before so I am not sure of the protocol that follows.
That’s why I started this thread so I could get input from other people.
I frankly don’t care very much if the driver is particularly repentant. I care about the possibility that he could be on the road hurting other people. My husband states the driver was completely in the wrong here. The police have not indicated anything to us about the situation so far other than they are glad my husband is not hurt more seriously.
If a driver is on the road hitting people I sincerely hope that you care deeply that he doesn’t do it ever again.
As I wrote I am understandably furious at him. My husband tells me that he had the right of way and he was hit by a driver who did not. The idea of suing him did not occur to me in the horrible rush of emotions that was my day yesterday until my best friend the lawyer suggested it.
This board sounded like the right place to get information about the decision process involved in doing so.
I didn’t know this.
So do we have contact the driver’s insurance company directly or will the insurance company contact us?
That’s the point I am unclear about. HOW will this be handled? Will the police file a report against this guy? Will nothing happen unless we sue? Do we contact the guy’s insurance company directly?
And do I need a lawyer to find this out?
The more you write, the less reasonable you sound - at least to me.
I do not believe your pursuing personal injury litigation is the mechanism for insuring that an unsafe driver is removed from the road. It is simply not your job. End of story. So chill with the self righteousness.
You may well consider your “fury” understandable. But IMO it is a luxury you are allowing yourself to wallow in while refusing to view any reasonable larger picture.
The more I drive the more I am convinced that the distinction between being in the majority of accidents or not largely comes down to dumb luck. Not that that should excuse this guy’s actions or heal your husband’s injuries. But I personally consider myself fortunate that I have not had someone step in front of me, or slam on their brakes, or whatever else on the occasion that I happened to be concentrating elsewhere, stopped in a crosswalk, distracted by glare, changing the radio station, or the countless other instances in which I have not been entirely in control of my car in a manner to prevent every conceivable mishap.
Shit happens. This time it happened to your husband. And that really sucks. No one is disagreeing with you. But you get to choose the manner in which it impacts your life. And at this point you are sounding shrill and unreasonable - IMO.
If you want to sue, by all means, go ahead and sue (tho there is no rush.) Just don’t expect us to give you a friggin medal or anything.
To me ,how much would your hubby have to be paid to let it happen again, is the litmus .
I agree with this. Ethical personal injury lawyers will recommend waiting 12-18 months to evaluate whether there is any permanent damage from the injuries, such as some loss of sensation or impairment of use, before even thinking about commencing litigation and in order to have a full sense of what a reasonable settlement will be and to ensure full compensation for the injuries. More frequently, they will wait until close to expiration of the statute of limitations to sue. Suing right away will either get you an inadequate settlement or get your husband painted as a greedy SOB to a jury should the case go to trial.
Try seeing it from your husband’s perspective. He got hit by a car, the driver seemed upset by it (indicating that it probably was an accident), and, while he’s in pain, his enraged spouse is trying to “work on him,” to get him to do something he doesn’t think is right.
Why are you doing this to him?
I’d be devastated if my husband got so carried away with his anger that he was willing to try to get me to override my judgment for his idea of punishment, especially if I were injured.
LavenderBlue I would leave this thread and don’t turn around. Consult a lawyer after you get the police report. A lot of them will give a free initial consultation. Talk to a couple of them. Then make an informed decision. It is not up to you to push through some form of tort reform. You should not take on the burden of what is wrong with the court system. Do what is best for you and your family.
The first thing to do is to file a claim on the driver’s policy. Go from there.
To answer the question posed in the OP, for me it’s a maybe. If it was 100% my fault even though I was the pedestrian, no. The driver completely at fault, yes. In between, maybe to probably, especially if the driver was a butthole or impaired.
Still, all this lawsuit talk is premature, and carping on Lavendar for being upset is not helpful. Inigo’s post was the closest to what to expect at this time.
If you are not contacted by the driver’s insurance soon, call them yourself.
The time I was involved in something similar, the driver-at-fault did not call his own insurance company as is required. Make sure his insurance company is aware of the problem yourself. Do not rely on the driver to do this for you.
Don’t wait for them to contact you. Call them, ask for the person who’s working on the claim.
Dinsdale offers sound advice in post 50, as well.
Thank you. That makes sense to me.
I am not trying to push my husband into a course of action that he is ethically opposed to. I am trying to make sure that we are not financially punished for someone else’s mistake. We’ve already been punished physically.
Dinsdale,
I talked to five other mothers in my daughter’s bus stop this morning about the situation that happened to my husband. If you want to talk about a larger picture I will tell you about the one I see in our community; the one where people commute through it without much regard for those of us who actually live here. This is a constant problem here one that many of us feel has not been adequately addressed by the local police force.
If a lawsuit grabs their attention and makes them take our concerns more seriously I would consider that a community good. But again this is all very early and I have not decided what I suggest to my husband yet.
Ohfercrissakes… I worry about the possibility that YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND are on the road hurting people. I’m worried the CECIL might be on the road hurting people. It was an accident. Do you want his license taken away? FOREVER??? If so, a settlement isn’t going to accomplish that. This is looking more and more like a “get a little rich quick” scheme.
Of course! That’s how lawyers make their money!!!