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Won in Court Against Driver - Can I Sue His Insurance Now

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  • 07-31-2012, 01:53 PM
    bvan
    Won in Court Against Driver - Can I Sue His Insurance Now
    My question involves a traffic accident in the State of: CA

    Hi everyone, a contractor who was hired by my landlord had backed into my vehicle and damaged my car. He gave me all his info at the time but wanted us to work it out without getting his insurance involved. After taking it to his friend's shop and a couple independent ones he was shocked at the cost of repair. I then called his insurance company and they began their investigation. After a couple of weeks of phone calls and letters I received their last letter to me and it was a typical coverage denial from his insurance company because of some crap also including the contractor denying fault to his insurance.

    I only had liability insurance and my landlord is a real B so I didn't want to create any problems with her if I didn't need to. So I decided to go to small claims court against the contractor. I presented my case and evidence and I won in court. Now here's the issue. I am having trouble collecting from him since it turns out he is not a licensed contractor and pretty much works cash.

    What are my options of collecting at this point? Can I contact his insurance and now force them to pay? Or do I/can I go to court again but this time sue his insurance? The accident happened 2 years ago and it took 9 months to get a court date. Since then I have been trying to collect.

    Thank you for your help in advance.
  • 07-31-2012, 02:04 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Won in Court Against Driver - Can I Sue His Insurance Now
    He can make a claim with his insurance company if he has coverage (although it sounds like that has been done; denied). You can try submitting a claim to his insurance company, but if they denied it before there's no reason to believe they won't deny it again. You have no basis to sue his insurance company.
  • 07-31-2012, 02:28 PM
    bvan
    Re: Won in Court Against Driver - Can I Sue His Insurance Now
    Thanks for your response Mr. Knowitall. I don't know much about this legal issue that's why I came to this forum. I guess what my basis for suing his insurance was that they are responsible for paying for the damages since their insured driver was found guilty and at fault in court.

    Do know of any options available for me to collect?
  • 08-02-2012, 08:11 PM
    That Guy
    Re: Won in Court Against Driver - Can I Sue His Insurance Now
    Quote:

    Quoting bvan
    View Post
    Thanks for your response Mr. Knowitall. I don't know much about this legal issue that's why I came to this forum. I guess what my basis for suing his insurance was that they are responsible for paying for the damages since their insured driver was found guilty and at fault in court.

    Do know of any options available for me to collect?

    If you wanted his insurer to be liable for damages as a result of you possibly winning the court case, (which you did) you could have/should have sued him AND his insurer in court when you did. Of course had you done that, his insurer is under no obligation to simply lay over and let you win; you can bet they would have had their top attorneys on the case.

    Now, with that being said, you can read and try to enforce the following vehicle code sections (BIG emphasis on "try" simply because as you will see below, you will run into some potential hurdles):

    VEHICLE CODE SECTION 16250-16251

    VEHICLE CODE SECTION 16370-16381

    Typically, that is the procedure that one would follow when winning a judgment against a person who was uninsured at the time of the accident. In this case, this guy is insured however he failed to satisfy the judgement against him (I don't know if it has been 30 days yet or not but you can figure that out).

    The reason I stated this is so when you read VC 16371, you will see that there are TWO requirements for him to meet before he can get his license reinstated.. So his suspension will remain in effect until (1) he submits proof of financial responsibility (which he likely already has on file with the DMV), [so this is no biggie], but due to the fac tthat the language in the code section includes an "AND" means he would have to meet BOTH requirements the second of which is "until either the judgment is satisfied in full or to the extent provided in this chapter, subject to the exemption provided in Section 16375".

    16371. The suspension shall remain in effect, and no license shall be issued to the judgment debtor until the judgment debtor gives proof of financial responsibility as provided in Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 16430), and until either the judgment is satisfied in full or to the extent provided in this chapter, subject to the exemption provided in Section 16375.


    The other challenge with regards to him having insurance will then come through VC16375, but if the DMV does indeed find that his insurer was indeed liable, then your judgment would -I assume- be collectible through them. And you can cross that bridge when you get to it.

    Obviously, this plan does not come with any guarantees, but its a start and who knows, he might just fork the money over (depending on how much we're talking about here) simply with the possibility of temporarily losing his license.

    Good luck , and let us know how it works out, if it does (or if it doesn't)!
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