My question involves defamation in the state of: Seeing what could be done with the situation at hand as explained below.
About four months ago my friend kept bugging me to let him drive my car (Ford Focus 04). It was a stupid of me to let him drive but I did and the damage is done.
We was going down the road(two lanes) and a 18-Wheeler hit us on our side of the road. Everyone else got out of the car and went to the hospital besides me. I stayed behind to talk to the police.
I told the police that my friend was driving the vehicle; not to mention there was two eye witnesses that seen him driving.
So we all get home and me and my girlfriend start working on the insurance. We call my friend and his girlfriend which was also riding in the vehicle, and they start asking me to say that I was driving the car. I was not about to lie to anyone about driving that car. There was no point in it. If my friend had some problems with the cops and his license, then that was himself and had nothing to do with me, or my property.
The next thing I know is that both him and his girlfriend has gotten a lawyer and was telling this lawyer that I was driving the car. My girlfriend called the lawyer and tried to explain, but it seems as if the guy was just persistent.
It turns out that both him and his girlfriend sued my car insurance and collected a lump sum of money. I quit talking to them after they got the lawyer because I knew deep down they was just trying to get some money out of the situation.
So now the guy is telling people how he "swindled us" and I could line up the witnesses that has heard him say this. His girlfriend is in a rehab, but I imagine she got there with my insurance company and is saying the same thing from time to time.
I feel as if the police and the insurance did not investigate the accident clearly. Not to mention that now I am sitting around the house with no public transport, no job, and now taking prescription medicine for my depression.
I am totally ignorant on how the law works and I'm not sure if I can do anything about it. The wreck happened around four months ago and at the time no one was offering me advice. Just telling me what I did wrong.

