Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

Perjury Scare Help!

My sister was in a minor accident in a parking lot. She was the driver and my mother was the passenger.She back up put the car on drive when an old woman backed up and hit her on the passengers side. My sister has a legal permit to drive with a license driver. The old woman was so scared she thought my mom was the driver and took her name and license number instead of my sisters. My mom was so scared she called her insurance adjuster and told her she was the driver. Now my mother wants to call the adjuster and tell her the truth. I told her that wasn't a good idea because she would be commiting perjury. Besides the old woman was at fault. My mother has always been a good person I guess she was just scared. Your opinion will be greatly appreciated. Thank You


Asked on 9/09/06, 1:21 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Jonathan Stein Law Offices of Jonathan G. Stein

Re: Perjury Scare Help!

The concern is not perjury, since your mom was not under oath. The concern is that your mom may have committed insurance fraud. This is a felony and very serious. Your mom should not do anything until she talks to an experienced attorney in insurance matters. She may want to read my blog at www.calpiblog.com which will answer some of her questions.

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Answered on 9/14/06, 6:20 pm
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Perjury Scare Help!

Call me a cynic, but my guess is that your mother really was the driver (it is implausible both that the other woman would think the person in the passenger seat had been driving *and* that the passenger would falsely tell the insurance company she had indeed been the driver) and thinks that now claiming otherwise will somehow work to her advantage. If I'm right about this, she is thinking of committing insurance fraud. The consequences of doing so are almost sure to be much worse than the consequences of the accident itself.

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Answered on 9/14/06, 6:54 pm


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