What kind of compensation would we be eligible for regarding injuries sustained in a car accident?
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What kind of compensation would we be eligible for regarding injuries sustained in a car accident?
Last weekend my 20 year old daughter was being driven home by a friend from a party. She was tipsy and didn’t want to drive and asked her guy friend to drive her and her car home. However, the friend rolled her car. The insurance is in my name. They took her to the ER and she sustained minor injuries with a cut above her right eye, a sprained left ankle along with a few bumps bruises. Her friend who drove wrecked the car and was arrested for DWI; he blew 2 times the legal limit. What are our options to get medical bills paid, money to get her a new car and other compensation?
Asked on September 14, 2016 under Personal Injury, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
You can sue the at-fault driver: the drunk friend who wrecked her car. (If he was a minor, you could sue his parents or legal guardians, too.) That is your only option for compensation, unless you have your own insurance policy(ies) which apply in this case. Unless you have insurance, though, then your only recourse is to sue the driver who injured your daughter and wrecked your car (or more technically, since your daughter is an adult, *she* must sue, not you). Please not that if, as you indicate, he was DUI, his insurance may not cover him--insurance policies generally have exclusions for DUI. That means that while your daughter will likely be able to prove his fault or liabilty (to be DUI is essentially by definition to be at fault), if he personally does not have the income or assets to pay a judgment, she may not be able to collect: winning at court does not make money appear where there is none.
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