Legal Question in Personal Injury in Virginia
rear end accident
3 yrs ago I was driving at 5:45am,extremely dark. I turned to check traffic coming off interstate while I was trying to get on. I suddenly hit a broken down dump truck and then was rear ended myself. there were no lights or warnings on the truck or road,I never saw him, i was transported, had emergency surgery in hospital 6 wks had another surgery last year to repair damage and will require another in 10 yrs. Contacted a lawyer recieve copies of letters from him sent to get my medical records but otherwise do not hear from him. I was charged in accident, went to court w/lawyer and charges dropped. My van was totaled and paid off by ins, I got 2,000 from medical payments from them. I just found out from my Ins Co. that truck driver got $5,650 and $295...I broke a light on the truck!!! Guy that hit me got 7,000. and 4,560 from my insurance company....This does not seem right and now I am concerned that if my suit goes through on the truck driver if I will get somthing or if it will be disregarded because of the Insurance company making such large payments. My insurance has double since the accident and this it the 1 and only accident I had in the 25 years that I am driving.
Please give me any help you can.
Thank you
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: rear end accident
If your case went to trial premised upon a theory of negligence against the truck driver, and it was found that
you had some measure of culpability(responsibility) for the accident, you could not receive any damage award against the defendant truck driver since under Virginia law any negligence on the part of the plaintiff serves as an absolute bar to any recovery in such suits. (The fact that your insurance company has already seen fit to pay the other two drivers would suggest that, apparently, in their view you do indeed share in some measure in the responsibilty for the accident.)
If the above is true this may also explain somewhat what would appear to be your current counsel's sluggish approach to the case.
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