to sue or not to sue? that is the question.....

Hello all, I'm fairly new to this forum, introduced myself a couple of months ago. Anyways, i am in search of some advice. I was in the process of selling my 2001 M3 (june27th). But on June 24th (my wedding day), i lent my car to a friend of mine that flew in from out of town. Well on the way to the church ceremony some guy in a corvette pulls out in front of him, to avoid a collision with the corvette he turns the steering wheel to the right and crashes into the curb going about 50mph. The Front passenger wheel/suspension is totally gone. The insurance adjuster said that it would cost about 4k to fix, i'm thinking that it will be more once the shop takes things apart. There were 3 witnesses that said the corvette pulled out in front of my friend causing him to crash. I want to sue the other guys insurance for 1. Messing up my wedding day and causing stress on behalf of myself and my friend for crashing my car. 2. Recoup the lost resale value since the car has been in an accident and i can't get the selling price that i was going to get (29,500). I'm thinking about sueing for 6-10k. Should i go through with it? If so what are my chances of winning this in court. Thanks

1. Messing up my wedding day and causing stress on behalf of myself and my friend for crashing my car. Your chances are zero. 2. Recoup the lost resale value since the car has been in an accident and i can't get the selling price that i was going to get (29,500). Your chances are silghtly better than zero but not much.

You can file a lawsuit for just about anything. I personally wouldn't bother with something like this. Fix your car through your insurance, that's what it's for. Also, I think you have a very small case against the Corvette. Next time, tell your friend to hit the Corvette and then you'll have a case. I'm being semi-sarcastic here, but without an accident involving the other party, I don't think you'll get very far.

Sorry to hear of your loss. I have learned that by lending anything to anyone, to expect and accept the worst. My responsable friends also know this. We seldom borrow or lend things between us. You are lucky your friend was not hurt and sued you. This happens more than you may realize. Your insurance company is probably not happy that you loaned your car out as they did not rate your policy premium based upon your friends driving record. Glad it wasn't worse, it easily could have been.

you should speak with a lawyer jbd

There were 3 witnesses that said the corvette pulled out in front of my friend causing him to crash. I want to sue the other guys insurance for 1. Messing up my wedding day and causing stress on behalf of myself and my friend for crashing my car. 2. Recoup the lost resale value since the car has been in an accident and i can't get the selling price that i was going to get (29,500). The fact that you have three witnesses is key. The Insurance company for the Vette should compensate you for 100% of the repairs to your car, and for the diminished value for your car since you have proof of its value prior to the accident . You should be able to easily negotiate this without help of a lawyer. To get compensation for mental anguish caused by the accident will require the assistance of an extraordinarily talented lawyer.

It has been my experience that: 1. Taking into account both legal fees and personal hassle factor, it does not pay to get into a lawsuit with only $6 - 10 K involved. The legal system is a drain on the winner, just as on the loser. 2. If there is any case at all against the Vette driver, your insurance company will attempt to subrogate the claim to him / his insurance company. They have no desire to pay money they are not liable for. 3. As others have stated, you have zero chance of collecting for "messing up your wedding day". 4. Depending upon your state of residence (GA, for example) your own insurance company (and whomever they cross claim against) is responsible for the diminished (as result of accident & repair) value of your car.

Kim is exactly right. Read her post again. Btw, if you're going to sue anyone, sue your friend. He's the one that wrecked your car. Congrats on your wedding!!

Now I know why he always gets answers to his questions real quick

Same thing happened to me MANY years ago and what I was told is that the Corvette is nothing more than a bad driven. If there was NO contact between the 2 cars then yoo are SOL. Your friend would have been better off hitting him as sad as it sounds.

I agree wtih LVDell on this one. I had an accident where a car turned head on into my lane. He did it to avoid hitting a car that pulled out in front of him. I had a head on collision at about 30 mph. Fortunately, I was in a rental that just happened to be a Volvo S40. I was fortuate to walk away with only minor injuries: a sprained wrist, a jammed knee and a coupel pulled muscles in my neck. After a week I was fine. The Volvo was totaled. In the accident inspection, since the first car that pulled out in front of the other party wasn't in the accident; he was not a part of the accident. My insurance company took care of me and then sued the driver of the car that hit me. In this case, I would say to let your insurance company take care of it and most likely nothing will happen to the other party. In civil court anything could happen, particulary with a jury. You just need to realize it will cost more than the damages to your car to go to court with a limited chance of getting anything beyond the costs of the accident. If you can find a lawyer that feels strongly enough to pay out of pocket or on a reduced retainer to pursue, go for it. Ohterwise, it is only going to add to your losses.

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah i also told him to hit the corvette too. But like most of us, our reaction/natural instincts is to avoid the other car without realizing after the fact that in doing so we would hit something else. Oh well, i will wait and see what my insurance investigator tells me after the investigation. Thanks again, so i won't being sueing that guy cause i'm sol

Unless there is a police report citing the Corvette for 'driving to endanger', 'failure to obey traffic rules', yadayada.....you don't have much I'm afraid. His insurance company will claim that your friend should have been in control of your vehicle, been able to safely avoid, yadayada.....

That sucks. I agree with the others, without medical injuries or large property damage, I wouldn't even bother calling an attorney. Nobody is going to take your case on contingency and you'd be a fool to pay any legal fees out of pocket. Forget about recovering any consequential damages (ruined wedding). You can ask to recover the dimunition in resale value as a result of the accident. You don't need a lawyer, worst case scenario, your collision coverage pays for repairs and you are out your deductible and maybe your premiums increase. You need the following: Police report (if there wasn't one, then, then the chances of pulling the Corvette into this case just dropped slightly south of Jack squat). Names and contact info for all witnesses. Corvette's license/VIN and insurer. Corvette driver's drivers license and insurer (if driver was not the car's owner). Your friend's drivers license and insurer. He is probably covered by his own insurance while driving other vehicles, like a rental car. It's not personal, that's why he has insurance. A good grasp of the events that day that led up to the accident. Including photos and diagrams. Call the Corvette's insurance company, the insurance companies of both the drivers, and your own insurance company and file claims with all of them. You are looking for somebody else's insurance company to pay for all of this. Based on what we've heard, I think there is a good chance your friend's insurance company is going to pay this claim because basically their insured drove into the curb in a single car accident. Now if your friend's neck is starting to hurt, that's when things get interesting...

Imagine me sueing for everytime someone F'd up my day.

This happened to my wife about 6 months ago. You are likely just SOL. If there is no contact then they are not liable. Like others have said you'd have been much better off hitting him.

Diminished value is only recognized in a handful of jurisdictions. In most of those venues, it is only compensible at the time you actually sell the car and can show how much less you were able to sell the car for than you might have gotten if it weren't wrecked. As for screwing up you day, I don't know of any jurisdiction that will get you compensation for that. As for getting the Vetts's insurer to pay? Maybe. Depends on who these witnesses were and were they listed on the police report or did they appear sometime later. Are the acquainted with your friend (or you) like maybe someone that was following him to the wedding? If so they'll be viewed as biased witnesses and their testamony will probably be discounted. If they didn't talk to the police at the scene and get listed on the report, it will look like you fabricated those witnesses to make your case later. Assuming the witnesses are rock solid, the Vette's insurance carrier can still argue that your friend took 'improper evasive action' and could have avoided the accident. I'm in the insurance claims busiiness.

The state of Georgia requires that liable insurance companies compensate the car owner for diminished value following damage in a covered event. This is part of the accident claim / settlement, and not delayed until some future sale of the car. I'm in the insurance premium paying business , a veteran of TWO teenage drivers at one time, along with a 5 car fleet .... a time in my life when my insurance premiums rivaled my house payment.

I'm a lawyer and my law firm is representing a Plaintiff that was injured in an accident despite the fact that there was no contact with the Defendant's vehicle. Two differences between that case and yours however are: 1st this client was seriously injured from the accident and 2nd there was a police report indicating that the Defendant caused Plaintiff to collide with a barrier because he swerved to miss the Defendant. If your damages are only $6-10k, the others here are correct that it would be tough to find a lawyer that would go through so much work for one-third of $6-10k... Another option is to purchase a diminished value report and use it for a tax deduction. If your car is worth $10k less, you can apparently get a $10k tax deduction which can save you thousands depending on which tax bracket you are in. Click on this link to read about the diminished value reports: http://www.ican2000.com/dvfaqs.html I've never done this before and it probably would increase the likelihood of an audit, so make sure your return for this year and perhaps the last few years are perfect if you take a ten thousand dollar diminished value deduction.

Well put Fishman

About five years ago, a girl friend of mine was rear ended. She was driving a BMW 540 which was only a few months old. I believe that the damages to her car were in the low $20K range. We live in MD and she refused to accept the repaired car because of the extensive damages. The Insurance company representing the owner of the car that rear ended my friend's car, agreed to write her a check for the retail price of a new 540. So apparently what you are entitled to depends a lot on the circumstances of the accident.