What to do if my husband was helping someone on the side of the road and another car driving recklessly hit and ran over him?
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What to do if my husband was helping someone on the side of the road and another car driving recklessly hit and ran over him?
He has been out of work for 2 years and had 3 surgeries. The girl that hit him had no insurance. Can we go after the insurance company of the girl that he was helping?
Asked on December 3, 2012 under Personal Injury, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
First, just to correct a common misunderstanding--you do not go after a person's insurance company; you go after the person herself and, if she has insurance, her insurer may step in (depending on the terms of the policy, the amount of coverage etc.) step in to defend and/or pay. So you'd have to sue the girl he was trying to help.
Second, there are no grounds to sue that girl: she apparently was doing nothing wrong. A person is not liable, or financially responsible, for another's injuries simply because they were involved in one way or another with them; rather, a person must have been at fault, either through a deliberate bad act or through unreasonable carelessness (called "negligence"), in order to be liable. So if she had some car or other problem and your husband voluntarily chose to stop and help her, his injury was not her fault.
Third, just because the girl who hit your husband had no insurance doesn't mean you couldn't have sued her (or her family, if she was a minor), and try garnish wages, put a lien on real property, have a car or other personal property "executed" on (i.e. seized by the sheriff and sold), etc.
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