Legal Question in Personal Injury in Virginia
Would a lawyer take you for a ride?
My 21 yr old son was involved in auto acc. Nov. 2003.He was a passenger in his(then) best friends auto.They had been out with some girls earlier and drank a few beer. It happenend @2:30am with no witnesses.His (then) friend ran off the road and hit some trees.Both were thrown from car.My son had a severe knee injury(required 2 surgeries and 10 mo of therapy)and multiple fractured right ribs and lacerated liver.He was hospitalized for 6 days with bills totaling $60k.The other boy went home in 1 day with a head injury and claims to remember nothing.He can't remember who was driving.The trooper charged no one.They had already been sent to the hospital before he arrived on the scene.Both yng men had the minimum liability coverage of $25K.We hired a personal injury lawyer for my son after we realized this boy was not going to admit fault and the insurance co was only going to pay $4K medpay.Our lawyer is sueing the other boy for $500K for my son and has assured us for 2 yrs that the injuries speak for themselves and the case has to go in our favor. Now 2 months from the trial date he wants to know if we want to go on with the case since there is only $25K policy available.There is more to this story.We are stunned!What's up with this??
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Would a lawyer take you for a ride?
Apparently, what your counsel is suggesting, is that even if your son won a judgment for $500K against the one who who remembers nothing, the latter is in effect, having virtually no assets,
in all likelihood what they call in the law, judgment proof, and, no, it's very unlikely that the parents could be held liable for the negligent actions of their son.
Bottom line: all that's likely to be available to pay the judgment would be the insurance of $25K, the limits of the liability policy.
What is puzzling, however, is why, apparently, it's taken your counsel two years to find this out.
counsel
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