My wife was served an "Original Petition Citation" today for a MINOR accident that happened over two years ago before we were married. According to my wife, she backed into this mans vehicle while he was backing out of a parking space. He claims that his vehicle was at a "standstill waiting on another parking spot, causing bodily injuries to the plaintiff". Then there is this: "As a direct and proximate result of the occurrence made the basis of this lawsuit, Plaintiff Mr. xxxx was caused to suffer injuries to his cervical area, and to incur the following damages: A. Resonable medical care and expenses in the past. These expenses were incurred by the plaintiff for the necessary care and treatment of the injuries resulting from the accident complained of herein and such charges are reasonable and were usual and customary charges for such services in Harris County, Tx. B. Reasonable and necessary medical care and expenses which will in all reasonable probibility be incurred the the future; C. Mental anguish in the past; and D. Mental anguish in the future. You can bet your ass there will be some mental anguish in the future. My wife was under the impression that her then insurance company had taken care of everything and has faxed a copy of the petition over to them. It also says that the "plaintiff hereby demands trail by jury". My questions: do we need to get an attorney as soon as possible or let the insurance company do their job? I can only imagine what the settlement might be if the decision goes against my wife. I still can't understand how it took two years to get to this. I'm not in a good mood so thanks for letting me vent. Any advice would be appreciated.
Same thing happened to my uncle, got sued 3 years after the accident. He let the insurance company take care of it. Lady settled it outside of court...
Thanks for the reply. That makes me feel a little better. According to my wife the insurance company told her that this guy had been in 2 or 3 similar accidents before.
What a dick. They should seriously say that ifit's more than 6 months past, you can't do jacksh*t about it because you obviously didn't care enough to get it handled right away. (I'm also mad/scared because I also "hit" a guy in a parking lot and am hoping the insurance people took care of it.)
I figured this type of thing was why the insurance company of a guy who rear-ended me was so quick to offer an "injury settlement" despite my continually saying that I was uninjured. I ended up taking $300 and used it to reimburse me for my travel back from Houston (and travel back down there to pick up my car when it was repaired). Not that I would've tried to sue over an accident in which I wasn't injured, but the insurance company likely thought it better to give me money despite my protestations and head off any potential action in the future.
Its usually 2 years. It sounds like it was filed right before it elapsed. Its hard to imagine personal injury when a backing car bumped a supposedly stationary car. It sounds like this is suit is competly frivilous and the 2 or 3 similar accidents makes it seem even more shady. Have you contacted her insurance agent yet?
For a low one time payment of $10,000 I can get take your problems to the park, if you know what I mean.
She faxed them the citation today and will give them a call back tomorrow so hopefully we'll know more then.
A-holes like these should be thrown in jail. I think its about 99.99% that this guy is lying. He is going to waste our tax dollars by filing this in court and taking it before a judge. And its crappy ass lawsuits like these that force insurance companies to raise rates for the rest of us.
The insurance company has the duty to defend your wife in this lawsuit. They will retain a lawyer and he or she will file the necessary paperwork with the Court. Tell your wife to cooperate with the attorney and make this go away asap.
Well the lady that my uncle hit. well she was fine, the ambulance was called because she was like 60, they both were fine, and they even talked to each other at court a week later about family, and work etc etc. Well she sued 3 years later for the loss of a job, supposedly she was going for an interview, Constant pain in the neck(only thing she really might of got,) and loss of sexual desire(my uncle flipped whne he saw that one)... but my unc hit her at a stop light, he thought it had turned green and went, No faster than 10 miles an hour, and she supposedly got all that from taht little tiff... luckily it went from 50,000 in court to some meager amount outside....
adeel, Did your uncle explain to her that loss sexual desire and the pain in the neck are actually signs of menopause? This is another reason why the elderly should not be on the road.
I thought that was common sense, no need to explain that, She knew she had a weak case, and that is why it was wrapped up so easily. She just wanted to throw in more stuff with the loss of job stuff, apparently backfired.
I still can't get over this guy trying the "mental anguish in the future". Hell, I could sue a lot of people for that.
This is what you pay the insurance company for. They will take care of it. If the jerk has done this before chances are he won't get a dime since he is more than likely the compulsive lawsuit type. Trying to make a quick buck.
Yeah, your insurance company should have handled it. That is, unless they denied his BI claim to begin with. Was your insurance company named as a co-defendant in the suit??
I'm pretty sure this was a Brady Bunch episode. What you need to do is throw a briefcase on the ground while the guy is on the witness stand, when he turns around it disproves that he has whiplash, and then the judge will dismiss the case.
