This Blog was brought to you by the Carabin Shaw Law Firm, Principal Office in San Antonio

Please note, the Carabin Shaw Law Office has moved to 875 E Ashby # 1100 San Antonio, Texas 78212

Is the Defendant Insured or Uninsured? And is the Defendant Solvent Enough to Pay for Your Damages?

All Texas drivers must have liability auto insurance. There are no exceptions and several powerful technology tools and accessible databases have been introduced that allow law officers to know immediately detect if a driver has insurance, and then execute a certain amount of “street justice” by immediately towing non-insured vehicles and giving their drivers very expensive tickets. But still, at least one-in-four Texas drivers don’t carry auto liability insurance. Whether or not an insurance company is involved in your case makes a huge difference in the ultimate outcome of your claim, and how it is handled. Certain conditions surrounding your accident (and winning compensation) can become convoluted, and contentious, while others are relatively straightforward.

Suppose that both drivers involved in your accident were insured to some degree. This is generally good news for you because when this happens it usually means that – eventually –there will be at least some amount of money available to compensate you for your losses once you are successful in bringing your claim. And yet, most drivers with “street legal-only” insurance carry minimum coverage on their vehicle. Their policy may not fully reimburse you for your total losses if your accident was especially severe or expensive since the minimum amount is $50,000 for both injuries for each person and $30,000 for property damage. And how many vehicles on the road today are worth over $30k, not counting the property that was in the vehicle? More info on this website
Additionally, just because there is money that is theoretically available under an insurance policy to compensate you for your losses, doesn’t mean that that money will be easy to get your hands on. Anyone who has carried minimum coverage understands that some companies pay better (and quicker) than others. And some, with both claimants as well as their customer’s in-general, aren’t generally very responsive to any process other than taking in premiums, then dragging their feet when it’s time to pay-up. And in just about any accident claim or civil case where an insurance company is involved, it means that you’ll be up against aggressive adjusters, accident recreation specialists, defense attorneys, and investigators who are all working to make certain that you lose your case.

Then there’s the one-in-four chance (at least!) that the other driver involved in your wreck was uninsured. Hopefully you have uninsured motorist coverage. But aside from that possibility, if the other driver is not represented by an insurance company, that other driver will probably be held responsible for paying you for your damages. So your primary interest is in whether this driver who hit you is solvent. If a defendant is insolvent, it means that he or she does not have enough money to compensate you for your injuries. When a defendant is insolvent there’s little value in pursuing litigation against him, no matter how strong your case is in proving he should otherwise be held liable for your losses. This is a sad, but all too common reality that some accident victims are unable to recover compensation from insolvent defendants.

But sometimes, a driver who has been involved in a wreck will take desperate steps to hide his assets in order to appear insolvent. He or she might also try and hide this accident from their insurance company that threatens to drop coverage if this person gets in one more wreck. No matter the reasons for this defendant’s behavior, if you suspect this may be happening in your case, the auto injury attorneys at our Texas Law Office can perform an asset check on any accident defendant to find out how much they are really worth. If there’s money available, we’ll find it and work to make sure you get your fair share.

Put our years of experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim, and how much compensation you can secure from your auto injury case, call our Law Firm now for a free consultation and find out how we can help you recover the full fair value of the damages you have suffered through the negligence of another driver.

Please note, the Carabin Shaw Law Office has moved to 875 E Ashby # 1100 San Antonio, Texas 78212