Can You Be Sued if in Family Insurance

Should You Sue Your Friend?

Nosotros do not sue your friend: In a personal injury claim, we seek damages from the insurance visitor, non your friend. That's what they take insurance for.

Your friend wants you to get better: A personal injury claim is how you go your life back on track. Y'all don't have to choose between feeling whole and keeping your friendship.

We get ane question a lot when talking with people thinking about filing a personal injury merits: What if you know the driver who caused the accident?

"I was a passenger in my friend'south automobile when I was hurt in an accident. Is it somehow dishonest to sue my friend? Will I be a bad friend if I try? Will this harm my friend or my friendship in whatever way?"

Just because you weren't driving the vehicle doesn't mean that your injuries are whatsoever less severe or the damages y'all have suffered are whatsoever less worthy of compensation. But your passenger status may mean you don't know where to go from here or who to seek compensation from, and how getting the money you deserve could affect the driver.

It'southward no surprise that passengers are often friends with their drivers. Friends become places together. They selection each other up or drib each other off. But sometimes during joy rides or errands, they have the misfortune of existence part of a collision, and while that tin can modify everything, it shouldn't have to terminate a friendship.

As a passenger, you lot have the correct to sue a driver for the injuries you lot suffered in a car accident. Every bit a friend, you should know that the lawsuit won't hurt the commuter'southward personal finances and, depending on the circumstances; you might non fifty-fifty be accusing your friend of doing anything incorrect.

Should I Sue My Friend?

Accidents happen. And when they do, the consequences tin can be serious. You lot might not arraign your friend for causing your accident , he or she may be completely innocent or take washed everything possible to avoid the collision, but your lawsuit is separate from how you feel personally about your friend or fifty-fifty most the crash.

You need to consider suing the driver, even if that commuter is a friend or relative, if:

• You lot suffered injuries that are affecting your life,or
• You lot incurred medical bills because of the accident,or
• There's a reason to suspect that some other driver or vehicle involved in the collision was uninsured

It'due south particularly important to explore the selection of suing a friendif you lot don't own a car or live with a family fellow member who does. New Jersey is a no-fault state when it comes to automobile accidents, which means that your own auto insurance pays your medical bills in the upshot of an blowno matter who is at fault. Fifty-fifty if you are a passenger in someone else's car, it'south assumed that your medical bills will exist paid by your automobile insurance company. If y'all have no car, you don't have an car insurance policy to comprehend you. That ways you may be unable to get the medical intendance you need to go better.

Suing your friend may exist your just option to go your life back on track, only don't think of it as a "you vs. them" situation. Your friend bought auto insurance for this exact purpose: to encompass the costs in case of an accident. Your friendalready paid for the coverage. Filing a claim or lawsuit is simply how the process of using those benefits works. It doesn't cost your friend annihilation when you seek compensation from their auto insurer.

Common Misconceptions About Suing a Friend

The insurance industry benefits from people feeling reluctant to pursue lawsuits for perfectly legitimate reasons. That's the reason there'due south so much misinformation about lawsuits out there, to discourage people with real losses from moving forrad with a merits. The truth is thatno one likes a frivolous lawsuit, especially attorneys, who just want to get existent cases resolved without the courtroom arrangement being bogged down by niggling matters. But to suggest that it'due south in whatever style wrong for an injured person to attempt to become the compensation they're entitled to because the policyholder happens to be a friend of theirs is unacceptable.

Don't be fooled by these mutual misconceptions about what happens when y'all accept to sue a friend or relative.

1. 1. Myth: Your friend has to pay your settlement. Really, the coin comes from the insurance policy, which your friend has already paid for. Filing a claim or lawsuit costs your friend zilch. The just one who benefits from you not filing a claim in spite of the harm yous suffered is the insurance company.
   2. Myth: Your friend will take to hire a lawyer (and spend a lot of money to exercise so).Your friend's auto insurance visitor is required past police to defend claims against its policyholders. Your friend will need a lawyer, simply that lawyer volition exist provided free of charge by the insurance company.
   3. Myth: By suing, you're blaming your friend for the accident. You might need to sue the driver of the car y'all were in, even if yous don't arraign your friendat all. Suppose a careless driver hit the car your friend was driving and y'all were riding in, but that commuter doesn't take insurance or is underinsured. Or suppose your friend hit a deer that ran out in front of the auto with no warning. Both of these instances could result in you having no other style to get compensation besides suing your friend, even though you don't blame him or her for the crash. And in the case that your friend really was at fault? Your lawsuit still won't crusade your friend any harm, financially or otherwise.
   4. Myth: Suing will enhance your friend's insurance rates.Insurance companies have the correct to raise a policyholder'due south premiums in the event of what'due south considered a chargeable blow, or a crash in which the driver is at fault. The insurer can do this whether or not y'all file a merits, then you might as well use the coverage your friend has purchased to help you lot get your life back on track.
   5. Myth: Your friend will exist upset at you for suing.Certainly, no one wants to be sued, and if your friend has bought into these mutual misconceptions, he or she might be agape of what volition happen if you sue. Once your friend understands how the lawsuit process works, though, it becomes articulate that you chose not to file a lawsuit only helps the insurance company. Once drivers are informed about the legal process, they often inquire if their passenger tin can and should sue them. Later all, this personis your friend, and he or she doesn't want to run across you lot remain injure or struggle financially when you lot don't have to.

Suing a Friend

You have the legal correct to sue a friend, but it can be hard to feel comfortable doing so. You don't want to damage your friend or lose your friendship, only not suing may not be an option if your injuries are severe.

Let us ease your conscience, and perchance your friend's worries, too. There is nothing unethical near you pursuing a claim against someone you care virtually, and doing so doesn't make y'all a bad friend. It just makes y'all a person who needs compensation for the very real amercement you take suffered. Depending on the situation (if you're going through UM/UIM coverage, for instance), you may not fifty-fifty be accusing your friend of causing the accident. Too if your friendwas at error, you're not saying that he or she is a bad person because of the mistake.

Further, even though your friend is personally named in the lawsuit, it'due south not like y'all're literally taking coin from his or her wallet or banking company business relationship. Your friend has machine insurance for a reason, to protect his or her family unit from the financial repercussions of an accident. In the instance of a covered event, the insurance company has a duty to pay claims up to the agreed-upon coverage limits.

Law firms like ours never get after individuals, so you don't have to worry. The worst that volition happen to your friend is the possibility of insurance rates increasing, andthat could happen whether or non y'all pursue a merits if the standoff was considered a chargeable blow or if your friend got a ticket for a traffic violation.

Suing a Family Member

If there are situations in which it's necessary to sue a friend, what nigh suing a family fellow member? Whether or not yous can sue can vary from i circumstance to some other, because information technology depends on the relationship and living situation.

What does this mean?Auto insurance policies cover policyholders and theirresident relatives, or family members who alive with them. If the driver whose car you lot were a rider in is also your resident relative, then yous won't be able to file a lawsuit against that driver because yous are also covered by that policy. (Y'all can still sue some other driver involved in the collision, and you tin can get benefits including medical bill coverage through your resident relative's policy.)

However, if the family member who was driving at the time of the accident does not alive with you, you lot can still file a lawsuit. Yous can sue a shut relative like a parent, adult child, or sibling provided that you lot don't live with that person. You can also sue a significant other if you are non legally married and are not on an motorcar insurance policy together. Every bit far every bit more extended family, y'all can file a lawsuit against a grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin or another relative, provided you do non live with the relative.

There's frequently an impression that suing a family member, similar suing a friend, is somehow out of line. Call up, if you have to sue a family member for an blow, you're not asking your relative to personally pay for your amercement, forcing them to rent a lawyer to defend them, or raising their insurance premiums. You're simply using the benefits they already paid for, benefits that they bought for a situation just like this.

Data for Drivers: Can My Passenger Sue Me?

What if you're on the flip side of this situation? You're probably wondering what happens if someone sues you later a car accident.

You might accept mixed feelings nearly your friend suing y'all. After all, you lot didn't mean for the crash to happen. You may have done everything yous could to become out of the path of danger.

On the other mitt,friends don't let friends suffer needlessly. And you know that your friend who was in the passenger seat is hurting now. You've seen how much this injury is affecting your friend's life. The last thing y'all desire is to know that injury continues to keep your friend downward.

Your auto insurance coverage is the key to your friend getting meliorate. These benefits which y'all accept already paid for,anyhow, can help your friend:

• Afford the top-notch medical care needed for the best possible recovery
• Brand up for lost wages, keeping your friend from going through an unnecessary financial hardship
• Aid convalesce the threat of future medical costs and income loss that results from the injuries
• Compensate your friend for the physical and emotional pain and suffering this experience has caused, which you accept witnessed immediate

As far equally how being sued will impact y'all, don't worry. Your motorcar insurance company must protect you. That'south what you lot purchased insurance for in the first place, and your insurer is contractually obligated to handle this situation.

• Your auto insurer volition provide a lawyer for yous. You don't accept to pay anything for your defense.
• When the case resolves, whether in a settlement out of court, a arbitration, an mediation, or a jury award, your insurance company will exist the ane paying.

What about your insurance premiums? Insurers may raise their rates if you lot had a chargeable accident, but whether or non your passenger files a claim has nix to do with that increase. With or without a claim, your insurer tin can raise your rates if information technology views the crash equally being your fault.

When your friend is an injured rider, attempt to recollect how the legal process works. Encourage your friend to practice what is needed to get better, and explore whether seeking money under your insurance coverage is ane of those things. An accident can alter a lot of things, but your friendship shouldn't exist one of them.

Agreement the Claims Process

If you lot're worried about suing a friend, it can help to sympathise how the claims procedure works. What'southward the difference between a claim and a lawsuit? What can you sue someone for? When you lot sue someone, where does the money come from?

What Happens When You File a Lawsuit or Claim Against a Friend?

In a typical accident, the person who is not at mistake will seek compensation from the negligent party, the one that caused the accident. This may or may not mean a lawsuit.

What happens first is that a personal injury attorney will submit a claim to the at-fault party'due south insurance company on behalf of the injured victim. This doesn't necessarily mean you accept to sue that person. Sometimes the lawyer and the insurance adjuster can reach a settlement before a lawsuit is ever even filed.

If the insurer is cooperative and willing to work with your attorney to negotiate a settlement that fully compensates you for the harm you suffered, we attempt to settle the case as early as possible in one case you accept finished your medical treatment. Settling a case without having to sue can help y'all become your money faster and incur fewer legal costs, merely it's non always an option. However, sometimes insurance adjusters would rather let the matter escalate than hold to requite you the coin you're entitled to.

If a lawsuit is necessary, the driver is personally named in the suit. But his or her insurance company has a legal obligation to defend him or her. The insurance company provides a lawyer for your friend at no charge to the policyholder. Once a settlement, arbitration honour, or jury verdict is reached, the insurer, non your friend, must pay that amount up to the private's policy limits. The insurance company also has a duty to endeavor to resolve the example inside the policy limits to protect its policyholder.

What Does Your Claim Against Your Friend's Insurance Include?

When you file a lawsuit or a merits, y'all're seeking compensation for what nosotros callamercement. Damages refer to the harms or losses you have suffered. Your damages tin can exist financial, like medical bills and lost wages; physical, like your injuries; and non-economic, similar the pain and suffering you lot experienced considering of the crash.

When our car accident attorneys handle a case similar yours, our goal is to get youmaximum compensation. That ways seeking a settlement or jury award that fully covers all of your damages. Go along in mind, though, that your friend is not the one paying. The toll of compensating you is the insurance company'due south responsibility. Rest assured that we'll seek to get you every dollar yous deserve upwards to the policy limitswithout trying to get any money from your friend personally.

Figuring Out Fault

A car accident is nigh never the fault of the passengers. Bold you didn't forcibly cover the driver'due south eyes while the car was in motion, the accident simply isn't your fault. But is information technology the other driver'due south mistake? Your friend's fault? A combination?

When a passenger pursues a merits, it's possible that both drivers involved will be named as defendants to brand sure that the victim isn't missing out on the compensation he or she is entitled to pursue. Sometimes only the other commuter's insurance company ends up paying anything. Other times, the friend is found negligent. If the claim can be settled early on in the process, it's possible that the passenger will never have to actually sue his or her friend at all.

Still other times, the passenger can seek compensation from any uninsured/underinsured motorist's (UM/UIM) coverage on the friend's policy even if the other driver was at fault. In this case, you're not challenge in whatever style that your friend is to arraign for the crash. Your friend's insurance policy is only standing in for the other driver's nonexistent or inadequate insurance coverage.

Let Us Answer Your Questions

If you were injured in a auto accident, you desire to get better. You want to put your life back together. We tin aid. We'll take care of everything involving your personal injury claim and then that you can focus on what's important, your recovery.

Remember, just considering information technology's called apersonal injury merits doesn't mean that suing a driver who is your friend is a personal set on. In fact, we frequently hear this question from the reverse point of view, that of the driver, concerned about making certain his or her friend tin can get the compensation they need, asking, should my friend sue me?

Your friend doesn't want to see you living with chronic pain and drowning in medical bills just to go the treatment you lot demand. No friend would want to see you, someone they care about, cull betwixt preserving the friendship and putting nutrient on the tabular array for your family. Sometimes suing and collecting compensation from that friend's insurance company is the only fashion to get the bounty you deserve after an accident.

Call us today and have your claim reviewed by acar accident attorney. Nosotros'll review your blow and answer your questions at no cost. If you lot let us file a personal injury merits on your behalf, you'll pay goose egg out of pocket until we win.Filing a claim won't hurt your friendship. Don't let your accident keep yous from getting your life back on track.

Article Reviewed By Richard P Panel Jr.

This article was professionally reviewed past Richard P Console Jr, an attorney licensed to practice in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Mr. Console has more twenty-five years of feel practicing personal injury law and successfully resolving vehicle blow claims on behalf of his clients.

While this information was reviewed for accuracy, it should not be considered legal advice. Every claim is different. If you lot are thinking of pursuing a personal injury claim and have a question, contact us direct.

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Source: https://www.myinjuryattorney.com/practice-areas/car-accidents/new-jersey/suing-your-friend/

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