Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
I received a dui last month in which I hit 3 parked cars. Unfortunately due to the timing, my insurance expired at midnight on sept 26, 2009. The accident occurred at 230am on the 27th of September. I have been contacted by the insurance companies of the three cars, in which they are requesting payment for the damages. One company said the damages were 19,100 and for another 900. The letter I received from the 900 damages said that if i dont respond within 21 days they could do the following: put a lien on any cars in my name, garnish my wages, suspend my license and i am a poor college student with no money, no assets, or a home. I am really scared because I have never been in trouble before. I come from a low income family and I only work part time at a store in the mall. I make 10.50 an hour.... I can't afford an attorney let alone the dui fines on top of all the damages I did... I just want to know what are my options. I barely make 500 every two weeks. I have credit card debt already that i am struggling to pay off on top of student loans of 10,000 dollars. I have 8 classes to go before I will get my bachelors degree in business. No one was injured, I just hit three cars and pretty much totalled my own car. The cars included were an 05 mercedes, an 06 mercedes, and an 06 audi, and my own car was an 06 scion. I need some legal advice as to what are my options.
1 Answer from Attorneys
With all due respect you are an idiot both for being drunk, driving and letting your insurance lapse. Notwithstanding that I hope you will learn a lesson form this grief and all the other stuff you will have to go through to get your license back.
Having said that the only worse conduct is that of the insurance company for lying to you. They cannot do any of the following until and unless they sue you, win (which would be easy) and get a judgment against you. That will take them six months to a year at minimum. As to the threat about your license that is BS became I assume the DMV already has a full picture of what you did and they will suspend it anyhow. They cannot punish you more than what you already got or are going to get, and in fact this type of threat is illegal. If it was made from an attorney�s office then it may subject them to sanction by the State Bar. You can�t threaten criminal action to gain an advantage in a civil proceeding.
Again notwithstanding your grand indiscretion if you need help with this SOBs please give me a call and I will give you a free consultation. By the way if you cannot afford a lawyer for the criminal matters you can get a public defender.
PS 2 Mercedes and an Audi not bad.
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