What should i do if some one on a bike falls infront of my car and is trying to sue me?

Question

I came home one day and after checking my mirrors i popped a crack in my door, because my swim bag is heavy, and i placed my foot in between the door and car frame so it wouldn't shut, as i went to reach for my bag some lady from my neighborhood came and fell in front of my car, not like right in front but, next to my car past my door. She stated not to file a report and not to do anything that shell be fine and that she has 100% medical coverage. Me being an idiot i didn't do anything to report it because technically its not an accident because i didn't even touch her. Now like a month later she is trying to sue me. WHAT DO I DO???? PLEASE HELP ME!

Answer 1

This must be a very scary situation for you. The first thing in any situation is to notify your insurance company immediately. Even if you didn't think you did anything, or the person said they weren't hurt, so call them now and let them know the situation.

Of course you couldn't force her to give her name and information, but if you know it, give it to them too.

I would also suggest filing a police report today! You can go to the police station and file a counter report, or could be called something different in your area, but it's the same thing. It's a police report that is after the fact, and let them know what happened, and you didn't file a report at the time because the woman left with no injury. You may want to take pictures of your car, and the area where she claims you hit her. May not be needed, but you can never have too much information, and the more you do to show you are serious about doing the right thing, the less it will appear you have something to hide.

Finally, I might suggest one thing to you. You give a lot of detail about where your foot was, and the gym bag etc. Don't offer too much detail about what you were doing, and the step by step as you explained in your question. All anyone needs to know are the basic facts; you were driving, you then saw a woman fall several feet from your car. You stopped, asked her if she was okay, offered to exchange information, she said no, if she did, and that she was not injured, and she walked away. When you give too much information than it starts to paint a picture that you were infact not paying attention, so if you were reaching for the gym bag, then that means you were distracted, so then its now possible based on your being distracted, that you could have hit her and not known it. Do you understand?

Once you call your insurance company, they will take it from there. In most cases, especially those where the parties are not clearly injured, you probably won't hear any more about it, unless your rate increases or you are cancelled in which case you find other insurance.

This is presuming you have liability insurance. If not, then this could be a problem in many ways, but lets not go there if you don't have to. Insurance companies are there to represent you, you will not need an attorney as they do all of this for you.

Accidents happen, which is why they are called accidents. You pay for insurance to be there not when things go well, but when situations like this happen. So let them handle it and go on with your normal life.

Answer 2

Was you car stopped ?  Did she hit your (partially) opened car door?  In any case, contact your insurance company.

Answer 3

If she is saying that the injury was caused by your car-- that you hit her - call your insurance company and report the claim.

Tell them exactly what happened and ask they assign it to their SIU department. That's the fraud unit.  The insurance company will investigate what happened and if a law suit is filed - hire an attorney to defend you.

Make sure that you cooperate fully with the insurance company in their investigation and defense.

Where there any neighbors outside that may have seen what happened?

Answer 4

Call a lawyer and explain the situation.

Answer 5

fight it.

Don't let that wench extort you.  Teach her a lesson.