What are my rights if I was rear-ended by a 17 year old drivingtheir employor’s truck of a major without the knowledge of the business?
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What are my rights if I was rear-ended by a 17 year old drivingtheir employor’s truck of a major without the knowledge of the business?
The family or the girl driving is not cooperating with my insurance company. The car is 18 years old buy only has 33,000 original miles. It still runs fine but because of the damage to the rear, my insurer wants to total the car. I am going to receive a total of approimately $2400. I don’t know if the girl was ticketed or not. I would like to pursue the company and let them know about their employee lending this girl their company vehicle without their knowledge. Shouldn’t they be reprimanded or something? I just need to know whether it would be beneficial to hire an attorney.
Asked on October 3, 2011 under Accident Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Several different issues:
1) The company is not legally responsible if the employee took the truck without their knowledge.
2) You can sue the 17 year old (or more properly, her parents), even if his insurer does not want to volunatarily pay your claim--that is, you don't have to take their refusal as the last word, but may sue them and see if you can't force them to pay.
3) If you were injured, you're only entitlted to compensation for your car. If the car is too old to be economically repaired, all an insurer or the court would give you is the value of it--and if you're getting it already, there is nothing to sue for, since you can't "double dip"--you can only get the car's value once.
4) You are free to contact the employer and tell them what happened, though you can't make them take action.
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