Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
About 9 months ago I was involved in a minor collision in a rental car in California. Basically, I changed lanes from the right at the same time someone was changing lanes from the left and the sides of our cars made contact. There were no injuries, however there was damage to the side of both cars.
The accident literally occurred one block from the rental car facility. Therefore, a representative from the rental car agency assisted me and the other involved party with our exchange of information and paperwork. I live in New York City and do not own a car, so I always purchase insurance when renting a car. After the accident, the rental car agent stated "don't worry, you purchased the insurance" which was overheard by the other party involved as they were standing right there. The other party seemed very happy to learn this information, although we never discussed fault or liability for the accident. A police report was not filed.
As far as I knew, the matter was settled between the rental car agency, their insurer, and the other party involved in the accident. I never heard from anyone regarding the matter until today, some 9 months later. I just received a voice mail message from a law firm which represents the rental car agency. They stated "you might have thought that you purchased full coverage, but your rental agreement only covered CDW and not liability." They informed me that the other party would like to get their car fixed and that I needed to call back with my insurance information.
I managed to locate my copy of the rental agreement. Although I asked for full coverage, they only included CDW and unfortunately I did not notice that during the checkout process. My question is, how is liability determined in such a case? Do I need to retain a lawyer in California in order to make contact with the firm representing the rental car agency?
Thanks for the assistance.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Some credit cards offer coverage if you rent the car with that card. You can call your credit card company.
The car rental companies are very unfair. They offer multiple different and confusing coverages, their employees don't understand the coverages and neither do the customers. By all means see if you can find a lawyer in California who has experience with such an issue. But I am not all sure you will win.
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