Expert: Anne - 3/24/2009

Question
Back in September, 2003, in Tennessee I was in a car accident as an uninsured motorist, at fault. I went through the courts and paid the fines related to the accident and being uninsured. Now as of today, Mar 23, 2009, the insurance company sent me a court summons for collection of the money for the accident. Specific wording seems to be "for negligence of Defendant causing an auto accident" and "Plaintiff's property damages." My question is whether this is beyond the statute of limitations. Looking into personal property damages for Tennessee it was saying 3 years for the statute of limitations but I'm not sure if that is the proper classification for this incident. If not then what would be avised from here? I've been laid off for a few months now so would not be able to afford to pay them anything. There has been no attempt made by them to collect except for one phone call back in 2003.

Answer
Hello Jeff,

Damages to the car are subject to the property damage statute of limitation (whatever that is, you need to check).

Damages for personal injury are subject to bodily injury or personal injury statute.

It depends exactly on what they are claiming against you. It does not matter that they have not call you, they have all the time until the statute runs to go after you. Going to court is an option they have.

If you do not have a job, then try to set a payment plan. They can help you with that (pay something every month until you have it pay off).

Anne