Another accident thread....
2 weeks ago this past Sunday, my husband and I were out in a company car to look at a house and put an offer in on it. Part of his job description is to drive a car 500 miles over 7 days to learn the car. He gets a different car every 5 to 6 weeks or so. This happened to be his week, so we were in that car.
We were stopped in traffic at a stop sign. I hear my husband say "Oh shit!!!" I look over to the side view mirror and I see a car as it hit us. She fully admitted she wasn't paying attention, she was talking to her kid in the backseat, and hit us at about 40mph and never hit the brakes. Her car was totaled, the company vehicle was damaged but not significantly so. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital because my neck was hurting pretty much immediately. My husband drove the car to the hospital and also got checked out. I basically have whiplash, and my husband has probably a torn rotator cuff from the accident. The accident happened in NJ.
The legal advice I need: Obviously the issue of the car is non existent since it wasn't our car. Medical bills were sent to the insurance company for Mercedes Benz (the company car) once we got the claim number. I was told 2 days ago that since NJ is a no fault state, her insurance was not liable for the medical bills. I knew this. We are looking to sue for loss of wages (husband needs surgery and already has used much of his short term disability for the year, so he would be dropped to 75% pay), and for pain and suffering (the torn rotator cuff, as well as increasing the time it took for his hernia repair and laproscopy to heal, which had occurred about 4 weeks before the accident). What I need to know is: Do we go through the company insurance, or does this need to be reported to our insurance, and medical bills and such go through them, as well as the ability to sue?
The confusion lies in the fact that although we were out on personal matters, we in a company car for which his job description is to drive the vehicle for the 500 miles. It's basically for training purposes, which I would considered business use, no matter what we were actually going to do.
So, which insurance do we go through (Mercedes or our own)?
We've already been in contact with a lawyer who gave his statement on this, but he did not have all the facts about it before he made that statement. We need clarification before we move ahead (since we need to call our insurance company within the next few days since it will be 21 days shortly if that is the case).
Thanks for the help.
http://home.comcast.net/~gbuc3709/IMAGE_098.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~gbuc3709/IMAGE_099.jpg
2 weeks ago this past Sunday, my husband and I were out in a company car to look at a house and put an offer in on it. Part of his job description is to drive a car 500 miles over 7 days to learn the car. He gets a different car every 5 to 6 weeks or so. This happened to be his week, so we were in that car.
We were stopped in traffic at a stop sign. I hear my husband say "Oh shit!!!" I look over to the side view mirror and I see a car as it hit us. She fully admitted she wasn't paying attention, she was talking to her kid in the backseat, and hit us at about 40mph and never hit the brakes. Her car was totaled, the company vehicle was damaged but not significantly so. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital because my neck was hurting pretty much immediately. My husband drove the car to the hospital and also got checked out. I basically have whiplash, and my husband has probably a torn rotator cuff from the accident. The accident happened in NJ.
The legal advice I need: Obviously the issue of the car is non existent since it wasn't our car. Medical bills were sent to the insurance company for Mercedes Benz (the company car) once we got the claim number. I was told 2 days ago that since NJ is a no fault state, her insurance was not liable for the medical bills. I knew this. We are looking to sue for loss of wages (husband needs surgery and already has used much of his short term disability for the year, so he would be dropped to 75% pay), and for pain and suffering (the torn rotator cuff, as well as increasing the time it took for his hernia repair and laproscopy to heal, which had occurred about 4 weeks before the accident). What I need to know is: Do we go through the company insurance, or does this need to be reported to our insurance, and medical bills and such go through them, as well as the ability to sue?
The confusion lies in the fact that although we were out on personal matters, we in a company car for which his job description is to drive the vehicle for the 500 miles. It's basically for training purposes, which I would considered business use, no matter what we were actually going to do.
So, which insurance do we go through (Mercedes or our own)?
We've already been in contact with a lawyer who gave his statement on this, but he did not have all the facts about it before he made that statement. We need clarification before we move ahead (since we need to call our insurance company within the next few days since it will be 21 days shortly if that is the case).
Thanks for the help.
http://home.comcast.net/~gbuc3709/IMAGE_098.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~gbuc3709/IMAGE_099.jpg
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