Legal Question in Personal Injury in Georgia
A man hit me from behind today. We exchanged info. However, I have learned that he does not have insurance. Also, he will not return calls placed by my insurance company. Am I stuck with the bill?
3 Answers from Attorneys
You or your insurance. You are asking for a guess since we know nothing of the other guy. People who drive without insurance aren't likely to have assets, or bank accounts and paychecks to garnish.
If you were smart and have full coverage, call your insurer. If you were cheap and rejected that, you get to pay out of your pocket (unless you can succesfully sue him).
Turn the matter over to your insurer if you have collision coverage or uninsured motorist property damage (PD) coverage. Your carrier will pay to have your car fixed, less the deductible. You will be out the deductible until your insurer sues and collects from the guy who ran into you. They are actually pretty good at doing that and have people who do their collections full time. There are many tools to use to get money out of the guy, such as taking the tags off his car and suspending his license and the insurers know all that. When they collect from him they are supposed to give you back your deductible. Plus you get paid back FIRST, then they are allowed to pay themselves what they paid out to fix your car. A Supreme Court of Georgia case says so. You paid for this service when you paid the premium. Use it. Good Luck!