Legal Question in Personal Injury in New York
Judgement exceeds insurance liability coverage
When happens to a plantiff with limited financial assets if a judgement in a traffic accident personal injury case exceeds his/her auto insurance liability coverage?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Judgement exceeds insurance liability coverage
I'm just going to assume you meant Defendant instead of Plaintiff. If a judgment against a Defendant exceeds his coverage he would be personally liable to make up the difference to satisfy the judgment.
Should you like to discuss this or any other legal matter, you can e-mail me for more information about low cost face-to-face, on-line, or a telephone consultation with a lawyer in our office.
Re: Judgement exceeds insurance liability coverage
You mean the defendant?
Then the plaintiff has to try to execute on the balance of the judgment not paid by the insurance company. There are a variety of ways to do that.
You may take a post judgment deposition to find out what bank accounts and assets the defendant has.
You can garnish wages, freeze bank accounts and, if all else fails, bring another action to seize and sell assets at public auction.
If the defendant is in NY, then the judgment already becomes a lien on any real property the defendant owns when filed in the county where the real property is situated. That would require the judgment to be satisfied at or prior to closing if they tried to sell it.
Enforcing a judgment is not easy and you should use an experienced collection attorney who knows how to do it efficiently.