When someone gets injured in a car accident, most of us know that the insurance company will pay for your injuries. So, when you decide to claim your compensation, who do you sue?
The answer is you sue the driver that hit you and caused the injuries, and if you win at trial, the driver’s insurance company will pay for the damages. Technically, the insurance company doesn’t owe you the money for compensation, rather it owes their inured driver the money so he or she can pay you.
However, the insurance company won’t send them a check to give to you, but the legal obligation to pay the injured victim comes from their contract with the driver to pay for any damage they do.
Driver Not Insured
If the driver is not insured, if they have enough money, they will have to pay you whatever the court awards in damages. However, if they are like most people, they don’t have the thousands of dollars it will take to pay a personal injury judgment.
In these cases, the injured person can make a claim against their own insurance company for the damages they have an uninsured/underinsured provision on their own auto insurance policy. If your insurance company refuses to pay, then you will sue them and not the driver.
This is because of the legal obligation to pay for your injuries under a UM/UIM policy provision and the lawsuit will not be based on the negligence of the driver but the failure of the insurance company uphold their end of a contract.
Contact a Spokane Auto Accident Lawyer:
Always contact a local lawyer after any accident resulting in a serious injury.
The attorneys at Crary, Clark, Domanico, & Chuang, P.S. serve clients in Spokane, Washington, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and surrounding communities. Contact us today for a free consultation and case evaluation. We will only offer you legal advice which is in your best interest.
