Expert: Richard Hixenbaugh - 4/3/2009

Question
First off thank you for your response in this matter as i am totally lost...

On feb 23rd, 2008 as this summons states i was involved in an accident with a taxi cab in nyc- it was a small accident where in fact he was at fault. scenario- i was about to park and he came from behind trying to squeeze (steal my spot) into the same spot hitting me on the right hand side of the vehicle close to the back passenger door. the nypd was called and a police report was written up. i never took legal action or reported it to my insurance company as i figured i would just pay it off on my own and never went to get a copy of police report. today (april 4th 2009) i received a letter dated sept 9th, 2008 which is a summons. it is the taxi corp. trying to sue me for negligence. i did not receive the letter in a timely manner, it was delivered to my mail box not personally handed to me and it states that after 30 days i am given 30 days to respond and ofcourse if i do not respond judgment will be taken against me and i will owe 828.09 as well as interest.the car at the time was a lease which has been given back and was insured under my mothers name but i have been in an accident before and was never personally sued.

my questions are as follows-

why are they not suing my insurance company?

what am i to do about the time delay and law suit itself?

i forgot to mention 2 witnesses in my car...and they have my license plate missing a number on the summons...is there any way to fight this?

Answer
Hi Mark,

First of all you need to understand that I am not an attorney, but I will do my best.

The taxi company would file suit against you and not your insurance company because it was you (in their opinion)that caused the damage. You do not sue someones insurance company. You always sue the at-fault driver.

You need yo contact the court clerk where the case was heard. Explain thet you just received the summons from a case a year ago. Ask them if a default judgement was entered. Considering the small amount of money involved here, I would say that it would simply be better to pay it or file it with your insurance company at the time of the accident for them to pay. At this point in time it could cost you thousands of dollars in legal fees that you would not get back to unwind this. If no judgement was entered against you, then you should contact the attorney for the taxi company to try to get this straightened out.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh