Quite often, when a potential client comes to my office, the first thing they say is, “I want to sue the insurance company.” If it’s an automobile accident or a trip and fall on a sidewalk, you don’t sue the insurance company; you sue the person or the entity responsible for your accident, and then the insurance company would become involved by providing an attorney for the defendant in the lawsuit to represent them in the lawsuit.
Sometimes, it happens where a family member may be in a car. Another family member is driving the car, and there’s an accident, and there’s some fault on the part of the family member who is driving the car. The injured person does not want to bring a lawsuit against them because nobody wants to sue their family member. At least hopefully, nobody wants to sue a family member. In this instance, though, we’ll advise the client that while you’re technically suing the person who is responsible for the accident – in this case, your family member – it’s not that you’re being vindictive against them. It’s that there is insurance coverage there to compensate you for the pain and suffering, lost earnings, and other damages that you have if it’s a significant injury. They only way to accomplish that is by starting a lawsuit against your family member. The most important thing that you can do in this situation is to inform your family member that the lawsuit is necessary in order to pay your medical bills and that the intention is not to harm your relationship with them.
If you are in need of legal counsel in regards to a personal injury in New York, please contact The Law Offices of Jonathan D. Sands and we would be happy to assist you.