Help... legal advice sought...

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

Here's the summary:
In sept. 2003, i was moving furniture from our house in NC to our apartment in NJ. I rented a big Budget truck (the 24' one). My dad drove the big truck and I drove my parents' car. At this point, it's important to remember that my dad is an automotive engineer with many years of experience, so he knows how a car/truck should run.

Anyway, at the Delaware/NJ border, entrance to the NJ Turnpike tollbooths, where the speed is perhaps 5-10 mph due to traffic, my dad suddenly became unable to brake the truck (pedal was hard, etc.). He hit the car in front of him. Due to the low speed and the huge truck, the only damages were a bent bumper and side door. Had this been a collision between cars, no damage would have occurred.

The car driver came out fine, no injuries, no problems, the police report noted the truck's inability to brake and we all went our own way (now, what happened with Budget and the truck is a whole separate and long story).

So, just today my dad received a summons for a lawsuit filed on Nov. 2004 against him and Budget by the car driver who is now alleging all sorts of disabling injuries, he can't work, he suffers, etc. the whole shebang.

Now, to complicate matters, my dad and mom are relocating today to Illinois for a job. Since I am a paralegal (albeit in a totally different area of the law), I've offered to draft an answer to the suit. Neither my dad or I have money to hire an attorney.

Obviously, my dad can't be here in NJ. What should I do? What sort of answer should I draft?

Things like these give bad names to the law and lawyers...
:grr: :nuke:

[Bunny]

1. Wouldn't your insurance company be responsible? n/t

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

2. As far as I understand...

this guy had already settled with the respective insurance companies...

This thing happened in Sept. 2003; it didn't happen yesterday.

[Lex]

5. There's probably a 3 year statute of limitations.

Anyway, have your father notify his insurance company--they and their attorneys should be handling this on behalf of your father.

[Divernan]

6. Passenger auto policies do not cover rental vehicles.

nt

[Lex]

10. Ah, but the good policies *do* cover you even when you are driving rentals

.
or driving someone else's car.

My auto policy covers me even if I'm driving a rental. I've checked.

[Divernan]

16. Yes, for rental cars, like at the airport, but not for commercial vehicles

I agree, my policy and my dtr.'s both cover us for rental of passenger vehicles. But they do NOT cover us for renting commercial trucks, ie, moving trucks.

[Lex]

20. Well, when I moved and rented a Ryder truck, my State Farm agent

assured me that no extra insurance would be necessary. I called and asked specifically.

Maybe that has changed in the last year or so.

[Nite Owl]

3. I would think that the insurance company

your dad had at the time or from the rental company would take care of this. They got lawyers that should be able to spot fraud which is what this sounds like.

[amazona]

9. yes turn it over to the insurance company

They'll know what the situation is. It isn't necessarily fraud, because people walk away apparently unhurt from an accident and it turns out they have soft tissue damage which you don't feel for days. For some people it does go on to develop into incapacitating pain. With a large truck running into the guy...yeah...it may well be that the victim became disabled.

So take this very seriously. Your dad should not be trying to handle this on his own. He should contact the insurance company IMMEDIATELY. They can tell him if the case is settled or what the problem is. If insurance coverage was insufficient to cover the victim's injuries, and he is now suing your dad and Budget to recover the rest of his damages, then your dad will need to hire a lawyer to protect his assets, assuming he has any.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[yardwork]

4. How awful. That is an example of a frivolous lawsuit, filed for greed

I don't have any legal advice. Is there free legal-aid in your area? Check the yellow pages or call Social Services. Sometimes Women's Centers also have volunteers who provide free legal advice.

[Optimus Primestein]

7. You can't answer the complaint - you aren't an attorney and can't -

sign legal documents - the papers should be given to your father's insurance company - they will hire representation for him.

[Divernan]

12. Slow down, everybody.

She CAN draft an answer for her Dad; but only he can sign it. People who don't hire attorneys appear before a court "pro se", ie. for themselves. However, there are first the matters of jurisdiction and service. When the poster says her dad received a complaint, what does "received" mean? If he got it regular mail, with no signature required, he could just ignore it. However, if he files an answer or otherwise anything in writing acknowledging he got the complaint, then he's on the hook to participate in the law suit. This means schlepping back to New Jersey, Delaware, or wherever the suit was filed. Where was it filed by the way?

Many years ago, my son was an employee of a YMCA in Connecticut, driving a van full of high school kids and their bikes as part of a bike tour. He was involved as one of the middle vehicles in a chain pileup one summer. A couple of years later, a complaint was sent to my home (which was the address on his driver's license). By that time he was at grad school in another state. I ignored it, because I had no duty to help someone get service on my kid(then a legal adult). The plaintiff was also suing the YMCA. I don't know what came of it. Never heard another word; they never even tried to resend the document return receipt requested.

However, if your Dad signed for the document, he should now forward a copy of it to the rental company, with a copy of the police report describing that the brakes failed, and make a formal demand that the rental company's insurance carrier provide your dad with defense counsel in this case.
If your Dad didn't keep a copy of the police report, he should request one from the police at once.

[Optimus Primestein]

14. Yes, she can draft the answer and have her dad sign it, but

since she isn't an attorney, that would be unethical. Plus, she's in the immigration field - it's not like she's ever even seen a PI answer before.

Of course her dad could represent himself pro se - but that would mean HE would have to draft the answer.

[Divernan]

17. It would only be illegal if she charged him for it.

At least according to laws of my state. And the Professional Code (lawyers' ethics code) just applies to lawyers - not family members or friends who aren't lawyers.

[candy]

8. Same thing happened to my son a few years back---

and it was New Jersey too(he lived in Mass)

Copy the form,send the original to your Dad's insurance company,and forget about it. That's what you pay them for.

The idiot with the so-called injuries in my son's case settled for $10,000.00 and had no injuries at all when my son and he traded papers.

The insurance company handled the entire thing. What is it with New Jersey,huh?

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

11. I have told my dad to contact his insurance...

however, one thing worries me... his name was not on the rental papers... he wanted to drive the truck because he thought I would not be able to handle driving it, as it was very large and cumbersome.

That accident was only the beginning of the problems with the truck. As soon as we got to the other side of the toll, we called Budget and requested that a mechanic be called to investigate. Because it was a Saturday, Budget suggested we leave the truck there with all my furniture there in the middle of nowhere in southern NJ for me to pick up later (when I have no car and I live in Jersey City). We refused and decided to go through the local roads and look for a mechanic on our own. Through our unsuccessful trip, the truck had more braking problems. We eventually got a U-haul, transferred all the furniture from the defective truck to the U-Haul, got the defective truck towed to a public parking lot, all while trying to get Budget to help us (which they never did). We paid for everything out of our pockets.

Later, Budget said their people did not find problems with the truck (what a surprise). I filed complaints with the NC and NJ depts. of transportation and the Better Business Bureau (to no avail).

[Divernan]

13. Now you are in trouble. Your Dad was an illegal driver.

My daughter and I moved furniture interstate. I could not help her drive, because SHE was the one who rented the truck and the only person the rental contract permitted to drive.

I expect your contract reads the same - they are all boiler plate contracts with the same language. Your best course of action now is avoiding service and your dad now being outside of the jurisdiction. In what state was the action filed?

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

15. Right now, I'm absolutely disgusted...

I understand that sometimes injuries don't appear immediately... but this is about 1 1/2 years later. The suit was filed in NJ in Nov. 2004. I guess it was just recently calendared. I am really incensed right now...

:grr:

[curse10]

18. As a paralegal you should realize it takes a long time to file suit

And if you hadn't had your dad drive the truck illegally then he'd likely be covered by budget's insurance. If budget is a defendant then you should contact them and their insurance company will likely handle the entire suit. If you go around filing answers you will likely just fuck things up. Call budget first

I worked in a plaintiff side litigation firm. Small, slow collisions can cause irreprable harm to passengers and drivers, so you can't just say it's frivolous, there's no basis. Most times suits aren't filed until the sol is nearly up and only after they've tried to bargain with the other side (Budget).

And the only reason your father is named in the suit is because insurance companies have such a stranglehold on state governments that they are no longer named in the suit. The insurance company probably didn't want to settle so the only option was to file suit.

[Divernan]

19. Note: Republicans got rid of the ICC; now no oversight of moving industry

Under a Republican congress (don't recall the year), the Interstate Commerce Commission was disolved. The ICC had oversight of moving industries. All the states were barred from legislating matters concerning interstate commerce. When the ICC was disolved, the federal laws barring the individual states from legislating interstate commerce were never taken off the books. So there are no federal laws or state laws protecting consumers on moves BETWEEN states.
Now the moving industry is like the wild wild west. Check on the internets - you'll see thousands of suits in every state of people trying to collect for damages to their property from the movers. That is the reason my dtr. and I moved treasured family furniture ourselves - there was no moving company we could rely on to (1) be careful of antiques and heirlooms; (2) honor insurance claims if they lost or damaged items; (3) give us reliable estimates of costs ( a favorite trick of movers is to arrive at the destination and then tell customers that the load weighed more than initially estimated and unless the customer comes up with x dollars more, the truck will not be unloaded. We hired local people we could trust to load the truck in one state, and unload it in another.