What Happens When An Insurance Company Doesn’t Want To Insure A Negligent Driver?

If you are in an accident with an individual—usually, where an individual driver has caused an accident—and you are injured, you sue the other driver. But in reality, it’s the other driver’s insurance company that will pay any settlement or judgment that is entered against you, so long as that amount is within the insurance policy limits.

You, as a car accident victim, want that to happen. Insurance is what ensures that you get paid whatever amount you have resolved the case for, without having to chase down an individual car driver’s assets or property.

When the Insurance Company Doesn’t Insure

But sometimes, the negligent driver’s insurance company refuses to insure the negligent driver, because of exclusions in the liability insurance policy.

A common exclusion is intentional acts. While liability insurance insures drivers for their negligence, it often will not insure them for injuries that arise from, say, criminal acts, like DUI or road rage.

When a negligent driver’s insurance company denies coverage for their insured (the negligent driver), it can cause you, the victim, big problems. You now risk winning your injury case but having potentially no real way to collect whatever you win or settle for.

On the Same Side

That means that if the negligent driver’s insurance company denies coverage, both you and the negligent driver—who, again you are suing because he or she injured you—are both trying to get his or her insurance company to change its mind and insure or cover the negligent driver.

As a victim, that puts you and the negligent driver on the same side as to this one issue. You both want the same thing—for his or her insurance company to agree to cover him.

From your standpoint, as a victim, you may have a dual argument –on the one hand, arguing that the negligent driver’s behavior was so reckless or terrible that the jury should punish that driver, and compensate you for your injuries—but on the other hand, you don’t want the other driver’s behavior to be so terrible that it borders on an intentional act, thus voiding or negating insurance coverage.

Reservation of Rights

And just because the insurance company may hire an attorney to protect their insured’s interests, and to defend the case, doesn’t mean anything—insurance companies can and do defend cases for their insureds, under a reservation of rights, while they at the same time challenge their obligation to insure the damages caused by their insured.

While this is going on, the insured (the negligent driver) may have his or her own, personal attorney, to try to coerce his insurance company to defend and insure the claim against the insured.

Your injury attorney, and the negligent driver’s personal attorney, may work together on this one issue—trying to get the insurance company to insure the accident.

Contact our Rhode Island injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help with insurance issues and problems in your car accident case.

Sources

irmi.com/term/insurance-definitions/duty-to-defend