Expert: webfoot - 10/6/2008

Question
My son, the 16 year old teenager, was biking along the road saw a car slowing down ahead of him without showing any turn signals. Unsure of the driver actions, my son turned to the deserted sidewalk on his right where he continued biking for some time until car turned sharply right to his driveway just a meter in front of my son without seeing him. To avoid a collision my son turned right but car continued moving since the driver still didn’t notice him and the collision occurred. My barely managed to keep control of his bicycle and avoid a serious injury, however his left leg was hit. He was in such shock and pain that he couldn’t think clearly and was not able to use right judgment and tried to distance himself from the collision scene to check his hit leg.

This accident was investigated by a police officer who granted my son with "Fail to remain" ticket.  He told us that the driver would be charged for careless driving since he didn’t notice cyclist on a sidewalk and collided with him when making a right turn to the driveway if my son did not leave the scene.

In spite of the "Fail to remain" ticket the car driver (plaintiff) wants us to pay his full damage ($1122.04) as this acceding to plaintiff this will not be reimbursed by his insurance company making a statement that the plaintiff should not have to make a claim for repairs on their automobile insurance when the individual responsible for the damage is known and bring this issue to the small claims court. Is this legal as the bicycle is covered under my home insurance company? The plaintiff has to prove one of three things: Negligence, intentional tort or strict liability. Do you think it can be the case?


Answer
The ticket that your son received has no bearing on the facts of loss and the fact that an insurance company would attempt to use that as part of their liability decision absolutely disgusts me.

Your son is not liable for any of the damages to the other driver's vehicle.  The other driver should be 100% liable for any injuries that your son suffered along with any damage to the bike.

Additionally, this insurer has thrown the practice of "good faith" claim handling out the window and is setting themselves up for a "bad faith" claim from their own insured as they are failing to protect him from the potential lawsuit that your son could bring.  

It is VERY, VERY rare that I advise someone to get an attorney before they've at least attempted to get a fair settlement offer but in this case, you need to find the meanest S.O.B. personal injury attorney that you can.  

Don't worry about small claims court as these idiots have likely taken things to another level.

Please let me know the progress on this, ok?