NEVER Deal With Defendant's Insurance Rep in a Serious Case
So I just call his insurance, ask for a claim dept and ask for the policy limit? His insurance has not contacted me
Unfortunately, your situation involves serious injuries and is not a minor fender-bender with no personal injury. The extent of your injuries, and the costs to deal with them, the recovery time, and determining any resulting disfigurement, or long term issues (the ability to work and limitations are a LONG ways off. Although your daughter now seems okay, issues may develop in the future, including PTSD. You're not in any position to settle anything now.
If you call to ask policy limits you're likely to be asked questions and anything you say to the very nice insurance adjuster or claims rep -- even politely responding to a "how are you today?" or "Getting some rest? Feeling any better?" -- will likely be recorded or noted by the insurance company and potentially be used against you down the road in mitigation of damages.
Indeed, the very fact that you called and asked for financially related information just might be used by the defense at a trial in an attempt to show right from the start you were more concerned with the money you would recover than is appropriate, allowing them to try to paint you as a money grubbing type of person, or possibly a malingerer or even a fraudster -- the type of person who just may have been careless or trying to get hit to obtain a big recovery! Yes, it happens.
In Virginia, as I recall, even the slightest bit of negligence on the part of the claimant would serve to bar any recovery. By calling the insurer you're just opening yourself up to huge disappointment down the road. In fact in any major claim situation dealing directly with the insurer is a terrible, terrible mistake. the individual claimant will never get as high an offer as a lawyer can get, and where there is a lawyer for the claimant involved, the insurer usually factors the need for the injured party to pay a lawyer's fee into the amount of its settlement offer.
Virginia requires drivers to carry policies providing a minimum of $25,000 of liability insurance coverage -- $50,000 if more than one person is injured. You also likely have your own auto insurance, and that likely provides uninsured / underinsured coverage which would be cumulative to the other driver's. To the extent that the other driver's policy was inadequate, your own policy typically steps in to help make up the difference to the extent of your UM/UIM. (That is why it is wise for ALL drivers to maximize their UM/MIM -- it costs a bit more in premium each year but boy is that money well spent -- just in case something happens, as it has to you.
Also, the other driver may have separate umbrella coverage -- so just learning the policy limit on the car insurance could be misleading. Further, every competent lawyer looks to see if someone else in addition to the driver may be liable as well, such as the driver's spouse, or the driver's employer (as if the driver might have been picking up mail for his employer, or running an errand for a third party at the time of the accident. Just getting the amount of coverage on his auto policy could be wholly meaningless.
A good lawyer tries to ascertain the target defendant's net worth early on -- and has far better resources for doing so than you would -- including how much could be levied upon in the future, and what could be done so the defendant doesn't start hiding or disposing of assets.
I hope you recover quickly, and that you and your daughter have no residual issues. But by all means get the best personal injury lawyer in the surrounding few counties that you can find. By the way, while 1/3rd is often the "standard," contingency fee arrangements with lawyers can be negotiated. Yours is a very serious case, and the involvement of a minor makes this all the more serious. If you are worried that a 33-1/3% fee will take too much of the money you'd otherwise be getting, the lawyer may agree to a sliding scale arrangement -- such as 20% of the first $25k, 33% on the next $75k and 40% on the balance. Whether that would work out better for you than a straight 33-1/3% is anyone's guess, but were i you, I'd rather pay a higher percentage to a really good personal injury lawyer than a lower percentage to a mediocre lawyer or one operating in a Personal Injury Mill that churns them and burns them and is looking to do the least amount of work for the fastest recovery and where turnover is the name of the game.
