Legal Question in Personal Injury in Virginia
I was involved in a minor traffic accident. I was turning right and had my right signal on. The car behind me said I had my left signal on so they passed me, on the right, and as I turned, they hit me.
The police were called and ended up writing us both tickets. She received one for improper passing and I received one for change of course after giving signal.
We exchanged insurance information and I submitted a claim to her insurance but the claim was denied because they advised that since I had received a ticket, that made me at least 1% neglience and that was all I needed to be in order for them to deny the claim. Her insurance company did NOT send anyone out to look at the damages to my vehilce. I left it for a week in the hopes that an adjustor would come and check it out. When they did not, I made pictures and sent them, via email, to the adjustor. I had given them a statement on the telephone and I am sure she did also. Those statements were the ONLY investigation done in this regard and those and the pictures I sent were the only information used to deny my claim. I might add that she passed me on a residential road that is two way traffic (one lane each way) that does NOT have 2 lanes and she choose to pass at an intersection. The lanes are wide because cars can park on either side of the road at their houses.
Both tickets were such that they could be pre-paid and she choose to plead guilty and did prepay her ticket.
I was not guilty of the offense that the officer said I was and elected to go to court.
The judge did not rule that her insurnace company was automatically responsible for my damages since it was a case of "her word against mine" and he said he would leave the liable decision up to the insurance company.
He did; however, advise that there was no way to establish that I did not give proper signal so he dismissed my ticket.
What legal action can I take now to make her insurance liable for the damages to my vehilce since I was deemed "innocent" of the charge and she elected to plead "guilty"?
Thank you,
Diane Clifton
1 Answer from Attorneys
There is no way for you to automatically "make her insurance liable for [your] damages" under the facts as described.
You could, nevertheless, elect to sue this other driver in small claims court for these damages to your vehicle and then see what happens (as to whether her
insurer will decide to defend her or not or whether she may merely decide to
just settle with you.)
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