Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

1. No. 2. No. 3. No.

1. Only if you want to commit a crime and make sure you never become an attorney. 2. Not unless an attorney files a lawsuit on her behalf and makes appropriate discovery demands. 3. No.

1. No. Only a licensed attorney can practice law.

2. No. Your girlfriend can file a lawsuit against the other driver, but Allstate will not be a party to that lawsuit. She can try to subpoena the company's file once the lawsuit is underway, but the company will challenge the subpoena and will probably succeed. Your sister's claim is against the other driver, not against Allstate. The insurer's internal information has little bearing on whether the other driver is liable or to what extent, so there is little reason for a court to let you see the company's file.

3. If the insurer either decides to comply with your sister's subpoena and/or is ordered to do so by a court, then it probably won't withhold anything. But that is a very big "if".

To summarize - You and she now have learned:

that you would be committing a crime to represent her without being licensed to practice by the State Bar;

that because she had no insurance as required under the law, the maximum value of her case is limited to only her out of pocket expenses and losses,

that no attorney is going to take a case like that on contingency unless there is essentially undisputed liability, and her out of pocket medical expenses are substantial enough to make his 'share' of expected settlement cover his hourly rate [no attorney is going to take that case to trial];

that she must try to negotiate the best deal she can get, or file suit and try to make it through the court process pro per. If her damages are less than $7500 she can file in small claims court, where no attorneys are allowed. Above that amnount she would have to file in Superior Court where she will be held to the same standards of practice and pleadings as are attorneys.

All the attorneys above have provided you with correct information and excellent answers. However, something you should really consider is the small claims route. I believe in small claims the amount you can recover has just been increased up to $10,000.00 although I'm not completely positive that is right. However, since the damages in Superior Court would be limited to her out of pocket expenses and her actually losses, the recover in small claims court would probably get her close to what she might recover anyway. It's the best shot she has and it removes the other party from being able to use an attorney as well. In small claims court you could assist her with the case and teach her how to go about presenting the evidence. Your law school may even have a clinic that assists people with small claims actions and as such she may be able to make lemonade out of lemons in this situation. The moral of the story is have insurance.

Good luck