Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Washington

Re: Neighbor child broke her arm in our home

Just call your homeowner's insurance. Ordinarily, I'd suggest wait and see if there IS a claim, but since they're telling you there WILL be, they may well do so, and you want to have your homeowner's insurance to start investigating and dealing with this claim right away. If you don't, you always run SOME risk that the carrier won't address the claim, because they didn't have info about it EARLY enough from you, to be able to properly investigate and defend against the claim, if necessary.

BUT, to answer your question a bit more directly: YES, that's what your homeowner's insurance is there for -- to protect you against any claims such as this, and to pay them as well, if they think they should. If not, and you're actually SUED, then the insurer will hire a lawyer for you, to defend the lawsuit.

Your policy PROBABLY has some limited amount of automatic medical payments coverage ("med-pay," in the insurance lingo)that's available on a no-fault basis, for this little girl's bills. It's usually somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 per incident. Beyond the med-pay, your insurer will most likely NOT pay anything further for the child's pain and suffering or ongoing medical issues, UNLESS they believe that somehow there was some NEGLIGENCE involved in your home. For example, if the child fell because you'd left an electrical cord strung across the floor, or left the floor full of wet vaseline or something. You get the picture.

Good luck! And try not to worry about it too much; this is usually what you have that policy for!

Sam Hochberg

Attorney at Law

www.YourInjuryLawyers.com