Question posted in the Insurance Law category relating to Gauteng
Question value: R 300.00
To whom it may concern
I would like assistance on how to handle a legal matter. Around September 2019, my little sister ( 20 years) tried to park my car without my permission (She also doesn't have a driver's license of yet) at her school residence while I was helping her with her laundrry. She accidently bumped into one car which shifted and hit the car next to it. The damage on my car was just the headlight and a few scratches. The car she hit obtained two dents from the force of impact with my car and from the second car it hit. We co-operated with both drivers and since i didnt have insurance both drivers said they had insurance ans would take care of it and time past by. The owner of the second car which was caught in the cross fire was really nice and understood that accidents are never intentional. This year i started receiving phone calls from a number I did not know and discovered that it was a law firm. I ignored it, yesterday I got an email from the same law firm with an invoice and I discovered we are being sued by the one if the car owner's insurance for 20 thousand. Me and my sister are both students and definitely can't afford this amount as our allowance only cover our basics. I still haven't fixed my own car from last year's impact and now this is happening. The res my sister stayed at last year had mentioned that if the owners of the cars which my sister hit needed financial assistance there were varsity funds set aside for such cases. Lastly I believe had the first car owner spoken to us before fixing his car we would have scrambled something together to help fix his car but he kept quiet and now this is happening.
How can me and my sister go about this case with falling into deep trouble for something we thought was in the past?
Answer to the Question
Hi there,
I see that you haven't made a payment for the question, but I'm going to assist you a little. If you want to ask a follow-up question, please make the required payment.
Basically, the owners of the cars put in a claim with their insurance companies and the insurance companies paid out to get their cars fixed.
Then, their insurance companies thought to themselves, "no, this isn't right!", so the insurance companies then hire a lawyer to come and sue you, because you ultimately are at fault.
There is no obligation on the owners of the car to sort something out directly with you. They are entitled to get their insurance companies to fix their cars, and the insurance companies are then entitled to come and sue you for the damages.
What you can try do is to offer them a settlement, because it is going to cost them more than R20k to go to court to sue you for R20k.
So maybe offer them R10k, in full and final settlement, payments of R1k per month?
Att. Patrick
Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow-up questions please make the required payment, then use the REPLY button and ask your further question. I would like to continue assisting you, but I need to concentrate on people who make payments for their questions.