Rental Car With No Insurance Hit By Unlicensed, Uninsured Driver

[frazier]

My question involves a traffic accident in the State of:My question involves traffic court in the State of: Florida and an at-fault, uninsured, unlicensed driver. I was involved in a car accident while driving a rental vehicle that was hit by an uninsured and unlicensed driver. He was cited for the accident and arrested and taken to jail. He was leaving the scene of another accident at the time(hit & run) when he ran into another vehicle that slammed into my vehicle(the rental car). I did not purchase the car rental insurance. I believed that my personal car insurance provided the coverage for rental car coverage, which was later advised to me what the actual rental car insurance provided. I have been contacted by the claims department for the rental company to make arrangements to pay-off the claim for the repair of the vehicle. My question is if there is any way I can make the at-fault driver responsible to pay for the repair before having to pursue some type of civil claim so that I will not run risk of losing my license or garnishment of my wages to pay off this claim? I have been advised that if I do not make arrangements to pay off the claim, they will either have my license suspended or even made statement of garnishing my wages. I feel that it is unfair that I have to be responsible to pay the claim upfront and the at fault driver gets away with. Please advise.

[blewis]

Check with the company that issued the credit card you used to rent the car. Many CC companies offer automatic "rental car" coverage when you use their card to pay for the rental. Just a thought, but it's worth the phone call.

Barry

[frazier]

Good Afternoon and Thanx for th response. The accident occurred in the state of Florida(No-fault) state and the car was rented using my debit card. Not a credit card. So, is there any way that the at-fault driver can be held accountable...now???

[aaron]

You are free to sue the at-fault driver. You may find out that he has no money with which to pay any judgment you receive, but you can sue.

If the person was criminally charged and it's not too late, you can try to put in a request for restitution through the criminal court.