Who do I sue?

December 27, 2006 6:18 PM

I was hit by a bus while my car was not moving. Who do I sue in small claims court, the driver of the bus, or the private company that owns the bus?

I was hit by a bus in March. Bus was driven by a private individual, but owned by a bus company. I was not at fault in the accident, and am now going to sue to recover my damages in Small Claims court.

Do I sue the driver of the bus, the bus company the bus is owned by, or both?

If it matters, I am in Chicago (and that is where the accident occured). The driver is from Chicago and the bus company is headquartered here too.

posted by JakeWalker to law & government (16 comments total)

Do you have car insurance? Your insurance company should be doing the suing, or you will get squished by the bus driver's insurance company.
posted by b1tr0t at 6:22 PM on December 27, 2006

You should not have to sue anyone. The bus company should have liability insurance and their insurance company should pay to fix your car. If they don't have insurance, I'm sure that's something your pertinent regulatory agency would like to know.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:35 PM on December 27, 2006

b1tr0t has it right. Your insurance company should handle it. Why are you thinking about suing at this point? What has your insurance company told you? You don't give us a full picture of what is going on.
posted by JayRwv at 6:45 PM on December 27, 2006

Total costs were ~$1,000, which was my deductable, so I didn't get my insurance company involved. Their insurance company has been unresponsive.
posted by JakeWalker at 7:35 PM on December 27, 2006

If it's not your fault then your insurance company will waive your deductible most of the time ... they'll make the other insurance company pay or sue them for it.

I am so not a lawyer, but I believe that you (or your insurance company) would sue the owner of the vehicle, since the automobile is insured, not the owner.

But I really think you ought to contact your insurance company if you expect to get anything out of this. This is why car insurance exists.
posted by tastybrains at 7:53 PM on December 27, 2006

The bus company's insurer is on the hook for this one. You did get the driver to show you the insurance card, right? And also filed a police report? That could be pretty essential.

Try calling your insurance (as tastybrains says, this is pretty much what insurance is for), but if they won't handle it, call the other party's. Any reputable insurer will take care of you. Check back in here and let us know how it goes. But there's no need for you to sue anytime soon, especially since you weren't hurt.
posted by SuperNova at 8:11 PM on December 27, 2006

Oh, this is assuming you have full coverage and not just liability or whatever the minimum is. (Since you mentioned a deductible and that you had some choice whether or not to get insurance involved, that seemed reasonable.) FYI, the process of your insurer handling things for you is called subrogration and is standard.

But if you're not covered, and must do it yourself, the bus co's insurance is still responsible; call their claims number with the other party's info.
posted by SuperNova at 8:16 PM on December 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

OK, I'm an idiot and somehow posted twice without noticing that your comment above said their insurance was unresponsive. Then the process is definitely go through your insurer, or if you must, call a lawyer. Their insurance will crush you if you do it yourself.
And now I'll go away for awhile...
posted by SuperNova at 8:19 PM on December 27, 2006

If I wanted to file a claim in Small Claims for the $1,300 in costs I spent, would I sue the insurance company, or sue the bus company directly?

I've got a police report, and a strong case, and would imagine it would get them to be responsive. This happened some months ago, and I've since changed insurance carriers.

I'm not worried about losing, I'm taking a chance I know. That said, I have a strong case, and would have fun taking it to small claims. Is there a downside I'm not seeing?
posted by JakeWalker at 8:34 PM on December 27, 2006

the options you present are not mutually exclusive (you can sue them both at the same time) but the company is bound to be an easier collect, and it is liable under the principle of respondeat superior for the torts of its driver.
your insurance company doesn't have to pay your deductible (maybe it will, maybe it won't) and it probably won't pay you for time off of work and incidentals. if you've never been to small claims court before, the experience offers value in education and empowerment, but if you are either 1) court-shy, or 2) making so much per hour that the experience would cost you more than it's worth, then let your carrier carry the ball.
posted by bruce at 8:34 PM on December 27, 2006

Could anyone elaborate on why it is certain that an insurance company would "crush" him in small claims court?.

I am a bit rusty on these things (and they vary by state of course) but in WA below a certain threshhold you are not even allowed to appeal a small claims ruling. An insurance companies lawers would have not signifigant advantage in a case with clear evidence.
posted by Riemann at 8:37 PM on December 27, 2006

If I wanted to file a claim in Small Claims for the $1,300 in costs I spent, would I sue the insurance company, or sue the bus company directly?

Again, I am *so* not a lawyer and I am just making assumptions here.

But I would assume that you would sue the bus company and that they may then get their insurance company to represent them in court. At this point, the insurance company hasn't done anything to you, so it wouldn't make sense to bring them to small claims court, IMHO.
posted by tastybrains at 8:40 PM on December 27, 2006

That said, I have a strong case, and would have fun taking it to small claims. Is there a downside I'm not seeing?

Yes - the bus company's insurance company has a staff of hundreds of lawyers who work on suits like this 80 hours a week. Not only are they getting paid to go to court against you, but they have law degrees and years of experience in this particular type of action.

Your insurance company also has a staff of hundreds of lawyers with similar training and experience. Would you rather make use of the insurance you have been paying for, or gamble?

I had a similar insurance claim once, and letting my insurance company take care of it cost me about 20 minutes of phone time. They paid for repairs to my car at the local premium body shop. I paid nothing, despite the fact that I had a $1000 deductable.

Every action you take can potentially hurt your insurance company's case. Talk to them tomorrow morning, and see what they advise.
posted by b1tr0t at 8:41 PM on December 27, 2006

The fact that you didn't go through your insurance company, and that you've since changed companies, is unfortunate. It is definitely preferable to have your ins. co. do the dirty work for you via subrogation. However, since that's not an option here, I don't think there's necessarily a downside in just going to small-claims court and giving it a shot. The party you want to be suing is the bus company, not the driver, and not the insurance company directly.

This almost goes without saying, but all your communications with the bus company and their insurer should be in writing; it may be important later to show that you've tried to communicate with them and they have been unresponsive. Sending some certified letters so they can't deny receiving them might also help. It helps if you can show that you're going through the court as a last resort, rather than a first one.

I've been through small-claims court and found the judges there to generally be responsive if you are calm, organized, logical, and have a good case and lots of paper to back it up. Make sure before you go in there, that you have crossed every T and dotted every I. And just remember to try and think of every thing that the other party might say (including things that are flat-out lies), and how you'd respond to it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:33 PM on December 27, 2006

IAAL but I am not your lawyer and I am not a lawyer in your jurisdiction.

I would second Kadin2048's advice about communicating in writing , and sending a few certified letters before you issue proceedings is an excellent idea.

Then I would sue both the bus company and the driver. This is normal practice in my jurisdiction (though it may not be in yours).

The reason is: the driver's obviously liable: he committed the tort. The bus company didn't do anything wrong (unless the crash was caused by a fault with the bus) but, it is probably liable for his torts as a matter of contract or law (and here I think it might be contract rather than law because you seem to indicate that he was not the bus company's employee but a private individual, who perhaps hired the bus: therefore doctrine of respondeat superior does not apply).

To be on the safe side you must sue the driver, if only to establish that he committed the tort, liability for which you are hoping to fix on the bus company.

You don't sue insurance companies in this kind of situation.

If it were me, I'd speak to my insurance company first. However, they won't be pleased if you didn't report it at the time.
posted by tiny crocodile at 7:12 AM on December 28, 2006

Document every single little minute detail that you can think of. Write it all down, in GORY detail, and keep an accurate timeline.

It will help you in the long run. Trust me.
posted by drstein at 7:01 PM on January 1, 2007