Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Hello.

You do NOT need to serve the insurance company. The proper defendant and the party to serve is the other driver and/or the owner of the car only.

Thanks,

Arkady Itkin

Immediately dismiss insurance company as you do not have to sue them, nor are they a proper party to your lawsuit. All you have to do is sue the guy that hit you. Since you shouldn't have sued their insurance company you don't have to worry about serving them. However once you sue the responsible party notify their insurance company so later they can't claim that they didn't know about the lawsuit and deny coverage.

By the way the only one who can show up in court is the responsible party. The insurance company can't provide a lawyer nor any representative in small claims court.

Good Luck and hope that helps

The driver is a proper defendant, but the insurance company isn't. The insurer didn't harm you or contribute to the accident, so it doesn't have any direct obligations to you. If you win a judgment against its insured then it may have to pay that judgment on her behalf, but that's because it has a contract with her and not because it did anything to you.

The other attorneys are correct. The insurance company is not a party to your case, only the driver and owner of the other car. At the Small Claims court case, ask the judge to not allow the adjuster from the insurance company who may be present to sit at the counsel table and to not allow them to participate in the claim.