Legal Question in Personal Injury in Florida

Here's the situation:

Cosigned with my father for a lease for a car on 07-29-2006. The car was totaled by him (the primary driver). I am not entirely sure on the date of this accident.

Insurance coverage is exactly as follows (as far as I can figure out)

USAA - Double Coverage?

(10/25/2006 - 04-25-2007)

(12/14/2006 - 04/25/2007)

Geico

(08/15/2007 - 10/14/2007

The car was picked up at a junk yard and sold at auction leaving the remain balance of just over 17,000 on both mine and my father's credit report.

Do I have legal action against either the finance company, insurance company, my father, or the credit bureaus?


Asked on 8/20/10, 8:07 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

You haven't told us enough about the facts. When did the accident occur? Was the car insured at the time? If it was, did your father settle with the insurer? Were you a named insured?

If the accident occurred when there was no insurance, then the insurance companies had no duty to pay any benefits. Your father can't sue them for failing to honor a non-existent contract. And even if he could sue them you couldn't, unless you and he jointly leased the car and jointly purchased the insurance policy. (Being a co-signer merely makes you liable for the lease payments.)

I don't see why you think you have a claim against the finance company, since you don't claim that anything it has done was improper. You and your father have to pay the balance, and nothing you have written suggests that the balance is incorrect.

I also don't see what kind of claim you think you can make against your father. Unless you were in the car at the time, the accident didn't cause you any harm that the law would recognize. And even if you were in the car, the harm you may have suffered would be unrelated to the lease agreement.

That leaves the credit bureaus. As far as I can tell, they have made accurate reports about the status of the lease. That you don't like the reports does not mean you have a viable claim against the bureaus.

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Answered on 8/25/10, 12:19 pm


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