Legal Question in Personal Injury in Virginia

Re: Automobile Accident - liability

Your fiance may file his claim for damages against the driver who rear ended him in small claims court for less than $40.

However, attorneys for the insurance company will have the case removed to general district court if the insurance company becomes involved.

If such becomes the case, your fiance will most likely require the services of an attorney in order to have any chance of winning his case.

Forget about having the insurance commissioner review the matter. These kinds of cases are usually resolved through litigation(or the threat thereof)rather than by insurance commissioners.

Re: Automobile Accident - liability

P.S. The 1% liability rule is a rule concerning contributory negligence which applies in Virginia and a couple of other jurisdictions.

It simply means that if the trier of fact(the judge or jury)finds that the plaintiff is responsible for 1% or greater of the negligent conduct which was the proximate cause of the accident which resulted in the damages being sued for, the plaintiff is barred from any recovery.

Re: Automobile Accident - liability

Insurance companies LIE. I imagine that they

have a check list of bogus excuses for not

paying what they owe. They hope that you will

be uninformed enough to believe what they say

or will be too discouraged to fight them. So

whatever the truth about your legal situation,

start off by IGNORING whatever the insurance

company said. It is completely worthelss and

tells you absolutely nothing. In fact, at best,

it will only confuse your thinking if you take

their excuse seriously for one moment.

A court will make its own independent evaluation

of the law and the facts, and so should you.

It is basic law that any driver is required to

keep his car under control. As a result, almost

any time your car is hit from behind, the

driver behind is automatically at fault. It is

probably the strongest "automatic" rule in all

of traffic law. If you are hit from behind, it

is the other person's fault.

Insurance companies will frequently try to lie

and say you are partially at fault. Theoretically

Virginia law does say that "contributory

negligence" is a defense. So if you also caused

the accident, you cannot recover.

However, "contributory neglience" must (a) be

negligent, and (b) contribute. If your actions

helped cause the accident BUT WERE NOT WRONGFUL

then those actions ARE NOT "contributory

negligence" and DO NOT excuse the other driver.

In your case, it will be of enormous importance

exactly what happened. However, if your fiancee

made a lane change that was reasonable, and was

surprised by another car that was NOT driving

reasonably, then your fiance acted PROPERLY to

avoid an accident with the first car. So he

was NOT negligent. He acted with care and

prudence in avoiding an accident with the other

car. They will try to say that perhaps it was

negligent to change lanes because it was not

safe to do so. That will be the whole ball game.

If your fiancee should have seen that there was

no room to safely enter the other lane, then he

will probably lose.

Also, it would help his case if he never completely left the original lane. If he was

re-entering the lane, this is more problematic

than if he was only starting to leave the lane

and changed his mind.

The other driver was clearly negligent by

following too closely as well as by

You should see a lawyer to file a lawsuit.

(You sue the other driver, not the insurance

co. They then answer for the driver.) But if

the amount is too small, you may be able to do

it yourself. The other problem you will have

is in proving yrou damages.