Legal Question in Immigration Law in Virginia
Civil lawsuit against international student
Let me just give a little background of my situation before I ask my question...
At the beginning of September, an international student holding only a visa took my car without my permission and totalled it while intoxicated. Since I was friends with he and the officer at the scene, I talked the officer into letting him out of a DUI, but still charged him with reckless driving and the person at fault in the accident (there were no other parties involved). Since he was my friend, I wanted to settle things out of court, but it is now 6 months later with no payment. I've contacted a lawyer who doesn't seem too knowledgable about dealing with cases involving non-citizens. So, my question is who must pay for the damages if he cannot? Is it his family or his sponsor who brought him to the U.S. for an education? Also, what can be done to prevent transferring of assets of the financially liable person so that they cannot be found and that anyone involved would not be able to flee the country? My question may not be too clear, but thanks for the help in advance.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Civil lawsuit against international student
Addendum to previous answer: It was reported in the news for March 12, 2002, that the student visas for Mohammed Atta, mastermind of the 9/11
"terrorastrophe" and one of his accomplices in
mass murder, recently arrived in the mail from
the INS at the Florida post office responsible for delivery of mail to the area where the two used to reside. No declarations of financial
responsibility(or anything else, apparently),
required!
Re: Civil lawsuit against international student
Presumably this "student" is an adult(over 18) and, therefore, responsible for his actions. Most student visas issued do not require declarations
of financial responsibility to be filed by a
student sponsor but only confirmation by the U.S.educational institution that the foreign
student has been accepted and is elgible to attend.
Given the above, your only remedy is to sue this miscreant and recover a judgment for your damages
which could be used to levy against any assets
this liquored car wrecker may have.
The bad news for you is that in this scenario it's
very unlikely that there is any other person or institution to bring suit against(not even, apparently, an insurance company).And ,since,
therefore, there are probably no assets to
transfer fraudulently, your last two questions are, as they they say in the law, strictly moot.
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