Wisconsin Car Accident Legal Questions

If you have auto insurance on your car, I would just pay your deductible and have your own insurance company take care of the damage. If you do not have insurance, than you are going to have to make the claim against the other driver's insurance company. If the police were at the scene, obtain a copy of the accident report to see if they reported that they had insurance. If no police at the scene, you may need to contact the other driver directly to find out if they carry auto insurance. If they do not carry insurance, your other option would be to sue them in small claims court in WI where the maxiumum to sue for is $10,000. Small claims court is designed specifically for people to handle their cases on their own without lawyers, but you can certainly find an attorney if you want to handle the case. If you were not injured in the accident, most personal injury lawyers will not take your case on a contingency fee basis, which means they only get paid if they recover money for you. More likely than not, you will need to pay a retainer and hourly rates to have an attorney helo you on  a property damage only case.... Read More

You will need to have your vehicle inspected by an independent mechanic to determine the cause of what caused your engine to fail, and whether the business that did the repairs or oil change to your vehicle may be liable. You may be able to sue in small claims court. I assume no other vehicles were damaged and no one was hurt when your car failed you.... Read More

This is a frequent ploy of the adverse insurance company. You were in an accident and either don't have insurance, or chose not to use your own insurance to avoid paying the deductible, and the adverse insurance company is horsing around having your car inspected and the damages paid for. Your car sits at a tow lot, and you incur daily storage charges. You have no car to get around. They won't provide a rental car to you and have no money to go out and buy a replacement vehicle. Worse, sometimes the towing company actually crushes your car and the insurnace agent can't ever go out and inspect it.      You can still get the value of your car by going to Edmunds.com or Kelly Blue Book, and determing the value of your car and presenting that to the insurance company. If you were injured in the accident, you should consider hiring a personal injujry lawyer to represent you on the case. They can also help with the property damage portion of your case. I can't tell from your post if the insurance company is refusing to pay on your car becasuse liability is contested, or because you two are in disagreement on what the value of the car may be.... Read More

I am only answering your question in the context of family law, not his criminal case. The divorce court is one of equity and fairness. Wisconsin also is a no fault divorce state songhe courg cannot consider bad behavior as a factor in any of the issues that will be facing you with getting a divorce from your husband. However, with that being said and done, in my opinion, he should be held responsible for the value of the car that he damaged; if the car can be fixed, this would include the repair bill: if the car was totaled, then the value of the car. I know that answer is a bit different than the question you posed. Certainly an element of your damages against him could be considered by the divorce court as the difference between the amount of your current payment for your replacement car against the payment for your car he destroyed, among with any additional length of time,if any, you had to take out a new loan. Courts have discretion so it is entirely upon how strong the divorce court feels you have been wronged or damaged by your husband's erratic and dangerous behavior, understanding still, we are a "no fault" divorce state.... Read More

If you hit a deer, there should be visible damage to your vehicle; take photographs of the damage and send to your insurance company. You should also take the vehicle in for an estimate on the body damage caused to your vehicle. If it was reported to the police or the DNR, get a copy of the report and send to the insurance company as well. If they still refuse to honor your claim and if the damage is under $10,000, consider filing a small claims lawsuit.... Read More

If you were rear ended through no fault of your own, the other driver and their insurnace company is responsible for fixing your truck, any of your medical bills if you went to the hospital, and if you are sore and seek medical attention, your bills that flow from the treatment. You are also entitled to pain and suffering and if you miss time from work, any time off. The insurnace company will respect you more if you hire an attorney to help with your cleim. If you are "sore"  you wree injured. I  would take your sore and sfit neck or back very seriously. I have seen clients with what appears to be fairly minor injuries following a car accident, winding up with permanent injuries from such an accident. It can happen. Don't let it happen to you. There is no fee or cost for hiring a personal injury lawyer, if you are hurt. The lawyer only gets paid if you get compensated and only at the conclusion of the case, typically one third. Consult with a personal injury lawyer of your choice as soon as possible, to make sure you are protected. The statute of limitations is 3 years in WI to start a lawsuit from the date of the accident, or otherwise, your case would be forever barred.... Read More

If you were rear ended in a car accident, under Wisconsin law, the other driver was primarily responsible for the accident, and I don't see how you would be responsible for the other driver's injuries or medical bills. The fact that you did not maintain auto insurance is a different issue but has nothing to do with who caused the accident.... Read More

      The insurance company is only obligated to pay you the value of your car, not necessarily all the money  you spent on it in fixing it up, repairing it, or its' sentimental value to you. I hear those same arguments from many of our own accident injury clients. You can independently check the value of your car to determine if the insurance company is offering you a fair price by checking on the Internet at Kelly Blue Book or Edmunds, among other car value guides.... Read More

       If you bumped into another car and it was your fault you are responsible for the damage caused. This would have nothing to do with, in my opinion, the design of your car or the other car.  It is an intruiging argument you make. If you have insurance, turn this over to your automobile insurnace company and let them handle the claim. If you dispute the amount of damage done, request that they take the car to another body shop or one of your choice to get a second opinion on the amount of damage caused.... Read More

Send a written certified letter in advance of each court date and enter a plea of not guilty for each ticket; keep a copy of the letters. Make sure you reference the case citation in each letter; the court will notify you of the next court date where you can attempt to negotiate the tickets down to a lesser offense; since you are a minor, have one of your parents accompany you to court and help you with the letters; the other option would be to hire an experienced traffic lawyer to handle the tickets for you; some charge as little as $150 or so, per ticket, to handle negotiating a  lesser charge, including the points for you.... Read More

If you entered into a court order, you would be violating the court order by not making the payments; if you signed a contract with the insurance company, you could be sued for failing to make the payments  as well. You also run the risk of losing your driver's license for failing to make the payments, unless you can show the accident wasn't your fault. Wisconsin has a  mandatory automobile insurnace law and the fact that you were driving without insurnace and caused an accident (apparently), puts you now at risk that if you don't make the payments, you may lose your driving right privileges. ... Read More

If you were driving without automobile  liability insurance, as required under Wisconsin law and caused an accident (a) you can be fined for not carrying insurance and (b) you can be held personally liable for any damages you cause. Such damages may include property damages, medical expenses if the person was injured, pain and suffering to the injured party and if they lost any time from work, among other elements of damages. If this was a non-injury, property damage case only, you would only be liable for property damage, and that is the costs involved in reparing the car, or if the car was totalled, for the value of the car. If you are limited financially, whether it is your income or assets, you also may want to consult with a bankruptcy attorney about clearing this potential liability in bankruptcy court. If you have insurance, simply let your insurance company deal with this; that is what you pay insurance premiums for.... Read More

Do you have the claim number, phone number, e mail and name of the insurance adjuster assigned to your claim? If not, call the claims department and they will provide you that information. You should be able to easily track down the status of your property damage check. If not, you can certainly look for an attorney to help you.... Read More

Under Wisconsin law, you can sue the driver directly if there is inadequate insurance coverage to cover your damages; your chances of recovery against the individual is probably from a practical perspective, not good, but from a legal perspective, you have the right to pursue it. If under $10,000, you would file in small claims court; if over $10,000, a large claims lawsuit. If your car was totaled  in the accident, the insurance company is only obligated to pay you the value of your car, not your loan payoff or what you might think your car is worth. You should have had your own insurance on the car, or you might not be in this predicament; your number at $10,000 also is confusing as under Wisconsin law, the minimum policy that they can write is $50,000. At least, that is my understanding.... Read More

In most states the claimant could not proceed against you personally. Regardless, in most places a judgment (which the alleged victim has not come close to obtaining yet) creates a lien on any real estate the defendant may own or acquire in a certain number of succeeding years. So...if your wife's name is on the recorded title, the 'victim' could get a lien against her interest in the property and if she were very highly motivated perhaps even against such interest as she had in the property as of the time of the accident. Also, if you live in a community (or 'marital') property state, and the accident occurred while you were still married, it is possibility, but only that, that the victim could try to implead you into any case she may bring. First things first: Consult an experienced personal injury lawyer who is versed in the divorce laws of your state. It's almost always worth it.... Read More

Where did you find the attorney you have now? I wrote a blog at our web site a few weeks back about questions you should ask your attorney. In terms of looking for an experienced personal injury lawyer, try such resources as Best Lawyers in America, Suoer Lawyers, Lawyers.com, Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell, among other lawyer guides. If you are unhappy with your attorney, you have the right to switch to a new attorney of your choice. The 2 lawyers split the contingency 1/3 fee; I also wrote a blog about that as well at my firm's web site.... Read More

If you think it was unfair that you received a ticket for the accident, you have the  right to contest the ticket; you can usually enter a plea of not guilty by mail or appear in court on the return date  to plead not guilty; many times, if you have a clean driving record, the municipal attorney will be willing to negotiate a reduced citation or maybe even willing to dismiss. What did you get a ticket for? Do you know if the other driver also relieved a similar citation?... Read More

I was actually planning to write a blog about this at our web site. You have signed a contingency contract with your attorney and have agreed to pay the attorney 1/3 of your settlement; if you are unhappy with your attorney, you have every right to fire your attorney and hire a new lawyer to take over your case; you do not pay another 1/3 to the new attorney; instead, the same  1/3 gets split between the two attorneys, so you are really out anything by deciding to switch attorneys.... Read More

It is hard to tell from your question if you are talking about pursuing an injury claim or simply concerned about a traffic ticket you may have received. If you were injured in the accident, the statute of limitations for a personal injury case in the state of Wisconsin is three years from the date the accident occurred, pursuant to sec. 893.54 Stats. If you have not filed a lawsuit within those three years, the claim would be forever barred.  If you were not injured, and are  simply concerned about contesting a traffic ticket you received, while I typically do not handle traffic citations, I would assume you are long past the time you could legally challenge a ticket that was issued to you three years ago. It would be  helpful to know what your reason or motivation  is for asking about the accident now and what your concern is.... Read More

Your insurance company will assign you a lawyer. Tell the lawyer what happened. However, to answer the question directly, I do not know of any law prohibiting parties from talking to each other. It may not necessarily be the wise thing to do, as in her case, it may actually hurt her in the end. Good luck.... Read More