Legal Question in Traffic Law in Washington

Re: Auto Accident

The general rule is that primary insurance "follows the car." This means that the insurance on the CAR is ordinarily who should respond first to the other party for any damages, unless he had no insurance. If the damages exceed the car's coverage, THEN your son's coverage would come into play.

I don't blame the car owner for not wanting his insurance to go up, and perhaps your son might make a financial gesture in that direction, to help with the premium if there really is an increase attributable to this accident, but that's up to him. But if your son reports this to HIS insurer, they are going to say what I just said: "Insurance follows the car, so WHO is the insurer for the CAR?" In other words, if your son tries to turn the claim over to his own insurance company, they will probably refuse to make any payments for this accident unless the car had no insurance.

There COULD be some aspects of coverage from your son's policy which could apply, to the extent that those provisions don't exist in the owner's policy. The insurers would likely sort that all out.

Good luck,

-- Sam