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When being sued, it's not time to ask the general public on a forum for legal advice... you want to approach a pro. Even if someone's just gone through the something similar, local laws differ & your cases may differ completely.
Google your state & your Secy of State's Legal Aide, which will give you a number or numbers (many states have multiple agencies to assist) to call to get quick advice or set up an appt for free, to speak to a lawyer for a pre-determined amount of time... from 10-20 min, usually over the phone... sometimes it's done via email & there are a pre-determined amount of emails that can be exchanged back & forth... it was 3 in a previous state I lived in. You can also contact the Bar Assoc in your state for the same & ask for a referral to some other agency of anyone who says they cannot help, because there are free resources, but you may not learn of them unless you ask & not all have webpages.
You may or may not have to secure a lawyer at your own cost, but you will get pertinent guidance from licensed pros before you do so.
Your story is confusing the way it's written, but it doesn't matter. Ask someone skilled to answer legal q's regarding your very specific situation in your particular state. And, do it now rather than inquiring of non-pros on this or other boards. You don't want to waste time. Good luck.
When being sued, it's not time to ask the general public on a forum for legal advice... you want to approach a pro. Even if someone's just gone through the something similar, local laws differ & your cases may differ completely.
Google your state & your Secy of State's Legal Aide, which will give you a number or numbers (many states have multiple agencies to assist) to call to get quick advice or set up an appt for free, to speak to a lawyer for a pre-determined amount of time... from 10-20 min, usually over the phone... sometimes it's done via email & there are a pre-determined amount of emails that can be exchanged back & forth... it was 3 in a previous state I lived in. You can also contact the Bar Assoc in your state for the same & ask for a referral to some other agency of anyone who says they cannot help, because there are free resources, but you may not learn of them unless you ask & not all have webpages.
You may or may not have to secure a lawyer at your own cost, but you will get pertinent guidance from licensed pros before you do so.
Your story is confusing the way it's written, but it doesn't matter. Ask someone skilled to answer legal q's regarding your very specific situation in your particular state. And, do it now rather than inquiring of non-pros on this or other boards. You don't want to waste time. Good luck.
This is the advice the OP was looking for and should heed.
How was the rental car insured. Most personal auto insurances will cover rental vehicles. Also many credit cards also give coverage for rental insurance. Your insurance should be dealing with Allstate and should provide a lawyer and defend you in court.
I think the one that is liable is the person who rented the car. When you rent a car, they ask do you want a 2nd driver on rental agreement.
Love the assumptions, attack on the OP's integrity and other trash. The fact is, insurance is on a vehicle NOT the driver. I'm amused by the snarky crap from posters that don't even comprehend that basic fact. Making the logical assumption that the vehicle was rented from a legitimate operation, the vehicle is insured, and the ultimate responsibility for damages caused by that vehicle rest with the owner, and insurer, of the vehicle. If their vehicle was at fault, which is unlikely as the officer didn't share that view, the insurer can litigate and/or negotiate a settlement. IF the OP violated the terms of the rental contract, the owner/insurer can then can then address that issue. My guess would be that Allstate views the OP as a soft target, that is much more likely to bear fruit, that the hardened insurer of a rental company. Particularly, when no blame was assigned at the accident.
Think of how some of the garbage logic posted here would play, in the real world. How many times do vehicle owners get away with, "sorry, but I didn't authorize that person to operate my vehicle". Hard fail. If someone is operating your vehicle against your will, it's stolen. If you let another person operate a vehicle you rented, without the owner's consent, it's a contractual issue, and does not void the owner's mandated insurance requirements. The OP needs to follow the only tiny morsel of advice here that has any value. GO SEE A LAWYER. Reading another post on this thread only causes confusion, and stress, while the clueless offer opinions on things they know nothing about.
I'm trying to figure out what partisan politics has to do with this situation. At all.
Except that there seems to be an ever-diminishing subset of 'Murricans who can discuss the weather or a dinner entree without parsing it into lib'ral/consurfatoid dialectic...
Well, no, Beergeek was actually being nice by saying that, normally, he and I do not see eye to eye on many subjects, but, in this case, he agrees with me. I thought that was a nice comment by him, personally, and I thank him for it.
I guess you had to be there to understand the context.
Insurance will go thru mediation.
Most settle thru that means.
Absolutely get a lawyer. Neither side will yield. So your lawyer wi need to play hard ball.
I've been there and finally looked at my own insurance company lawyer and said : ohh who are you fooling! Pay the guy! I admitted fault , I understand the medical cost and my policy covers it!
Five minutes later the mediator set the decision in motion. My insurance was ordered to pay the max my policy allowed and in exchange they signed a waiver to not pursue me personally for any further litigation.
Yes I'm absolutely sure no one's listed at fault on the police report. The cop didn't issue any tickets and stated, let the insurance figure it out. YES I HAVE LICENSE!!!
I was the only person injured in the accident (fractured my arm) yes there was significant damage done to the rental car. It was totaled. Let me be clear the other drive HIT ME!!!!! I have been trying to find and attorney to take my case but its been over a year since this happened and thought everything was fine. The rental car was covered and fixed, so really don't understand why I'm being sued.
You said earlier that you were not listed as a driver on the car. Were you not the renter?? If not, WHY were you driving the car? WHO was the renter? It is THEIR insurance, or the rental companies (if they used that option) that paid for the damage, I believe.
Allstate is trying to mitigate losses and put them on the other party. Since no one was listed at fault in the police report, they are trying to put it on the OP. I have had a run in with Allstate in the past, I lawyered up and they ended up writing me a check when it was over.
The OP was the only one injured in the accident and states she was not at fault and was hit by the other driver. Even though the OP was not listed as a driver on the rental and did not have insurance, she has some pretty good leverage. If it were me, I would threaten to counter sue for medical expenses, pain and suffering and all of that good stuff. Allstate will pack it in and go away if the OP does. Being that I would be pissed off after receiving the letter from them threatening to sue me, I might would just go ahead and sue Allstate and the other driver and get a settlement out of them just to pay them back for threatening to sue me. All insurance companies care about is the dollar and they start reacting when you threaten to sue them....especially when you obviously have good leverage. OP, talk to a lawyer. If nothing else, call one of the lawyers that run tv commercials in your area for "have you been in a wreck" kind of things. They are settlement lawyers and take cases pro bono. About all one of those guys will have to do is send a letter to Allstate threatening to sue and you will have a check within two weeks.
Love the assumptions, attack on the OP's integrity and other trash. The fact is, insurance is on a vehicle NOT the driver. I'm amused by the snarky crap from posters that don't even comprehend that basic fact.
If this were true then the rental company's insurer would have paid and that would have been the end of it, right? Instead, in a case like this they go after the person who rented the car, which is why they sell the overpriced "collision damage waiver" in the first place.
When you buy car insurance (and I realize the OP didn't have any), your liability insurance covers any damage to a rental car that's your fault. You have to wade through the definitions of "covered vehicles" and "covered drivers" but it's there. Most policies also include someone you temporarily allow to use your rental car as a "covered driver". Not all- in fact, it's these little exceptions that make some of the insurance policies you buy on-line from no-name companies cheaper than the standard ones. It's possible that the person who actually rented the car and let the OP use it didn't have insurance or the insurance didn't cover the OP because she wasn't listed on the rental contract- so now they're coming after the OP.
I am not a lawyer but I'm a retired casualty actuary and a CPCU and was in the insurance business for nearly 40 years. I agree with the advice to find a Legal Aid lawyer.
OP - take it from Don - a liberal, and myself - a conservative. We don't agree on much of anything -- but we do here. You are screwed. Everyone says get a lawyer -- I'm not sure that makes much sense - you will wind up paying a lawyer big money to be told that you're screwed. Wait until you see how much Allstate is trying to collect.
And I'm a staunch Libertarian Atheist and I concur the OP is screwed.
Lawyer up!
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