LegalAdvice #FamilyLaw #CarAccidentLawsuit
Hey everyone 👋, I could really use some advice here. So, unfortunately, my mom passed away after a car accident earlier this year, and now my dad is being sued by the other party involved. Here’s what’s going on:
- Mom passed in August 2023, but the lawsuit just came up now
- My sister talked to a free lawyer service, and they mentioned that the lawsuit could be passed down to us, her children? 🤔
I’m a bit confused about how this all works. Do any of you have experience with this kind of situation, or know what might happen next? Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated! 🙏
**Thanks for all the suggestions! I’ll be passing this info along to my dad to see what steps we should take next.
Have your dad call his insurance agent.
Even though she’s dead……if she caused damage or injury…….the injured parties can attempt to sue her estate.
That means, everything may be held up until the matter is resolved.
Sorry for your loss. Perhaps think of it not as they are suing your mom, but rather they are suing her insurance company. If the other person suffered harm or was injured, you kind of want them to be able to sue the insurance.
First off, I’m an insurance adjuster for these types of claims.
Step one is definitely to find out whether your mother had car insurance at the time of the accident. Contact them, find out if a claim was ever filed. Notify them of the lawsuit as soon as possible. The auto insurance carrier will have a legal team and litigation adjusters who handle exactly this type of thing. Their job is to defend the policy up to the limits.
If your mother didn’t have insurance, or if this accident wasn’t covered for whatever reason, that would be a situation in which I would go ahead and contact a lawyer at your own expense. This could pass onto your mother’s estate, although it probably wouldn’t pass onto yourself or your father directly.
Edit: talk to text
Lawsuit goes to the insurance and the estate. The heirs are not personally liable (ie from their personal funds), but if the estate has already been distributed they may come after the estate funds/assets that have already been distributed.
You will need to do what’s best for the estate and her will last wishes. If she had insurance they will have to go after that. Let the insurance handle the claim.
Tell them she’ll be there… what’s the worst that can happen?
The estate could be forced to pay out if monetary damages are awarded to the plaintiffs, but your mom’s insurance company should be dealing with this.
Not sure what state you’re in but my mom was hit by my an old (but nice and apologetic) man back in 2013 ish. The car accident caused her to have major neck and knee issues and she needed surgery.
My mom wasn’t from the state she was hit in and then the whole process was made even longer when the old man died from old age a few months later.
They had to go through the old man’s estate first and settle credit cards/mortgage (creditors with priority and legal documentation – forget legal term), then funeral expenses, etc
Then you handle next in line like the person who was in the accident before anything leftover can be distributed to the beneficiaries if there’s money leftover
Took over 5 yrs for my mom to get the money and it just barely covered her surgery and the lawyer.
I think it was extra long bc the kids were quarreling over the will and there were disputes about the estate
The accident was in South Carolina I think. I was a teenager when it happened so I don’t remember all the details and went off to college before it was settled
You’re gonna need an estate lawyer and you should contact the insurance company.
Insurance company may not cover all of it and your mother might’ve had to pay a deductible depending on her insurance
I don’t think it can be passed to her children. They can sue her estate–and that will effect the heirs.
I am sorry for you loss and for this complication. Contact the auto insurance company that you mom had when she was driving. They will handle it. Also, if she had an “umbrella policy” contact them as well.
And let the insurance company handle it completely. They have attorneys who do this all day. Don’t hurry them. Forward everything to the insurance company and if you were a witness or passenger or owner of the vehicle, you may be deposed.
Car insurance that was active at the time should still be handling this. The lawsuit itself wouldn’t pass to the children, but it would go to the estate. The estate would defend or settle the lawsuit in the best interests of the estate (if for whatever reason insurance isn’t resolving this) , and any payments made would come out of estate funds like paying any other debt.
This court impact the funds available after debts are payed which would be distributed to heirs, so in that way it can impact the children.
NAL
As others have said facts and state law matter. In FL a claim against an estate has a 1 year SOL as I recall. The insurance company can’t rely on that but the estate can if the claim exceeds the policy limits. You can look up the IL SOL online.
You need to forward the papers to the insurance company she had at the time of the incident. They should hire lawyers who will represent the estate. The papers will be amended so the defendant is the estate of (your mother’s name). It can’t be passed down to her children but it can (more in theory) effect what you inherit. The most likely scenario is the lawsuit settles for the insurance money.
A possible though incredibly unlikely scenario is the lawsuit actually goes to trial, the plaintiff wins, the judgement is 100k, insurance is 20k, insurance isn’t on the hook for the extra 80k*, so the state ends up on the hook for 80k. That doesn’t mean it comes from your pocket. If the estate was only worth 5k then the lawsuits judgement because another creditor. You don’t end up paying. If the estate was worth 100k though then the estate will have to pay you won’t inherit your share of the 80k.
The proper defendant would be your mother’s estate and the personal representative thereof. The correct answer is that her insurance should handle it. The heirs are not liable.
It wouldn’t pass to the children, but it would pass to the estate. Although assuming she was covered by a car insurance policy at the time the car insurance should cover it. The first step would be to call the insurance company she had at that time and talk to them about how to proceed. There are also some unique laws about statutes of limitations when the defendant has passed away, so that could come into play as well. The “free lawyer service” seems to have missed the boat because that’s not how things work anywhere at this point. There are situations where a child who has assets from the estate might be liable for the value of those assets if the estate were to be held liable for the car accident, but the limit of that liability is anything the child inherited from the state. Children are not generally speaking liable for the debts of their parents absent some filial laws that apply to nursing home care, not torts that resulted in injuries to another parrty.
First off, I’m sorry for your loss.
Assuming your mother had insurance coverage at the time of the accident, that insurance carrier should be able to handle the lawsuit. Step one is to call them up and inform them that there’s a lawsuit and give them all the information you’ve received about the lawsuit.
This is assuming this is taking place somewhere in the USA. Your location is important.