Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

If your insurance carrier already paid any sum to the injured party, then your case is settled as cases are not settled in part [except the property damage claim normally is settled separately] against a single defendant. The plaintiff can still go after any other defendants and settle with you. As to your liability, the vehicle code does provide that the owner of the vehicle is limited to $15,000 in liability [but that amount is reduced by the payments from any other defendant, so if the drive of the car's insurance company paid $20,000 your insurance company would pay zero.

If your insurance company already paid the policy limit then the case is settled. The insurance company would not pay a policy limit without obtaining a release. Although generally the owner is statutorily liable (liable by law) only for $15,000 as to each injured person (or $30,000 per accident), there are situations where because of agency relationship, employment relationship or negligent entrustment of a vehicle, the owner could be liable for the full amount of the damages. That does not sound like your situation since it was your son who loaned the car to his friend. However, if your son's friend was doing an errand for you or is employed by you or you gave your son permission to allow his friend to drive the car knowning he was a negligent-type of driver, then you might have some issues to worry about. If any of that applies you need to see a lawyer of your own choosing and not only the one assigned to your by your insurance company. Again, it sounds like your case is over and you might want to confirm that with the attorney assigned to your by your insurance company. It is not clear what your policy limits were but if it was $15,000 per person/$30,000 per accident (which is a minimum policy), the first thing you need to do is get a lot larger policy. Everyone should have at least $100,000/$300,000 bodily injury and $50,000 property damage coverage. This should be about the minimum!