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 Small Claims - Defendant Automobile Accidents Defending against persons claiming that you caused an accident can involve many factors. If you have insurance, your duty may be to notify your insurance company of the accident immediately. Failing to do so may give the insurance company certain rights to either refuse to defend you or to not pay a judgment if you lose, which they otherwise would have had to pay. Also, you will likely have to immediately notify the appropriate State Motor Vehicle Agency. What you say to both the insurance company and the Motor Vehicle agency [which usually requires a written notice] may hurt you or help you later on if you are sued. In any accident, you should always consult your Plan Attorney immediately. We will assume the accident was minor and that you decided that you would handle any liability without relying on your insurance company.[Remember, we are not advising you do this, but we are discussing this area in the event that you make this decision.] You may still have to notify your insurance company and/or the Motor Vehicle Agency. You should determine if anyone was injured, or if anyone is likely to claim at a later date that they were injured. You must make this decision early, and if you think there is even a hint that a passenger or the driver of the other car, or a passenger in your car might make a claim for injuries against you, you better give serious thought to allowing your insurance company to defend the lawsuit, or contacting your Plan Attorney for a free initial consultation. Assisting yourself in a possible defense of a car accident starts long before you are served with a lawsuit. Almost immediately, adjustors or witnesses or the plaintiff him/herself will call you and try to obtain damaging statements from you. Before anything, you should reconstruct the accident and/or visit the scene for clues as to how it happened. Before making any decisions, you should assess the fault in the accident, in your mind. Were you 100% wrong? Were there any contributing factors? Was there anything the plaintiff did to make you act like you did? Was there any weather or other contributing factors? If so, then how will you prove these? Were there any witnesses? If so, did they see the critical elements? Often witnesses cannot definitively state that they saw the color of a red light. Look for these things that will support your case. Get statements from these witnesses if they will help you. You may not want to write down a statement of a witness who might hurt you, but you may certainly want to talk to them and understand their story. What they say will help you prove that they may have been mistaken also. Thus, you have to be thinking how to defend yourself from an accusation of fault and also to build each element of your case to prove the other party was at fault. Be sure to draft a diagram of the scene and take pictures of the cars and person involved. Make sure to write down statements said by certain persons such as "it was X's fault" or "I didn't see the light" or similar such statements. And of course, have available witnesses to support your arguments. Again, remember that the plaintiff must prove that you were negligent in order to make his case against you. The fact that the two cars collided does not mean you are wrong. The plaintiff has to introduce evidence that you were wrong. Note: certain laws or rules may assist the plaintiff in proving his case, however. For example, in most states if you hit another vehicle from behind, the burden of proof for the plaintiff is often minimal, since it may be presumed by law that you were not keeping a proper lookout or were following too closely. You can overcome this burden with substantial proof that you were keeping a proper lookout and you were not following too closely. For example, you may be able to prove the plaintiff stopped his car suddenly and threw it into reverse, causing a collision with your car when you may have otherwise stopped. [This of course, creates the "far-fetched but possible" defense, which means if your defense is far-fetched, you better have strong proof that it happened the way you said it did, or you will likely lose, unfortunately, even if you are right!] Car accidents are tough cases and usually comprise a substantial portion of the court's time. You will likely face many different facts and arguments. This is only designed to discuss the basic aspects and to give you a few ideas for your defense. You should always consult a Plan Attorney for advice on your particular situation. Points to Remember
Property Damage What happens if someone sues you for causing property damage to their property? Remember, the basic rule is that the plaintiff must prove you did something wrong, and that what you did wrong actually caused the harm to plaintiff. For example, assume you left your car running while you ran into the store, and a person stole your car and drove it for ninety miles, sideswiping three cars, including the plaintiff's. If the plaintiff sues you, he must prove that your actions, leaving the car running, caused damaged to his car. Of course, if you hadn't left the car running, it would not have been stolen and there would not have been cars sideswiped; however, your actions did not actually cause your car to sideswipe the plaintiff's car ninety miles away. Certain states have varying degrees of the extent to which the defendant can be considered to have caused the damage in this incident, but most will free the defendant from blame in the above case. Thus, understand that if you are accused of causing damage, attack the plaintiff's claim that you did cause the damage and be prepared to prove it. In the above instance, you may have had to go ninety miles away and get a letter from the attorney who was prosecuting the thief to prove that you were not driving the car and to prove that it was stolen. Do it for your defense. Also, you may consider attacking the plaintiff's version of a property damage claim. Take each element and introduce evidence that the damages were not caused by you. Witnesses might help your case. For example, eye witnesses in a car accident case, or even an accident reconstructionist might help to prove the plaintiff's version of the damage did not occur. Finally, you might also try to prove that the damage was also, or in large part, caused by the plaintiff. This is form of contributory or comparative negligence. Regardless of the legal terminology, you should attempt to bring proof to the court that the damage was already existing, or that the plaintiff's actions caused the damage to be greater than it would have been otherwise. For example, if you accidently run your shopping cart along the plaintiff's car. She sees you, and grabs the cart to pull it away from the paint on her car, but in doing so, the cart falls against her car and dents it substantially. She may be responsible for some of the damage, and you may not have to pay for the entire amount. The best defense is always to outline each element of the plaintiff's case, and then ask yourself what proof the plaintiff has on each element, and what proof you can introduce or bring to court to disprove the plaintiff's version. Remember that all of this information is general in nature and is not designed to consider every possible set of facts imaginable. This discussion simply reviews the most common areas of concern that are overlooked or misunderstood when bringing lawsuits. Points to Remember
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