QUESTION
Can my daughter be sued for an auto accident in which it was never proven that she was involved?
Asked on Oct 13th, 2014 on Civil Litigation - Pennsylvania
More details to this question:
My daughters purse was stolen which had her identification in it. Weeks later her license was used on a police report stating she was involved in an accident. Only info that was on the police report was the info from her stolen license. No make, model, year or color of a vehicle was listed. Now she is being harassed by a recovery company stating they are going to seek legal action against her.
1 ANSWER
Anybody can be sued, but if your daughter was not involved in the accident, she is not liable. Nevertheless, she should notify her auto insurer. If and when she is sued, the insurance company should provide an attorney to represent her and, hopefully, the evidence that it was not actually your daughter in the accident will be so compelling that the attorney will be able to get the claim dismissed. If I was representing her now, I might be tempted to write a letter to the company harassing her, setting forth the evidence that she was not involved, and warning them that she would seek sanctions against them if they continued to pursue this baseless claim, but I doubt the insurance company will provide counsel until and unless she is sued, and I don't think you want to pay for a lawyer yourself to write such a letter. If you do decide to hire a lawyer yourself, or the insurance company provides one now, refer the company to your lawyer and let him/her deal with the matter.
Answered on Oct 14th, 2014 at 12:59 PM