I was in an accident in Ca. I was stopped at a 4 way stop, as it was my turn to go the person to my right did not stop and ran into me, the stop sign was down so he claims he didn't see it. Either way, I didn't have insurance, he had no insurance and a suspended licence, my car was totaled. I am not sure what to do, I have been told that I can sue the city because if the stop sign had been up then he would have stopped, but the attorneys are telling me that because I didn't have insurance they can't help me.:

No you can't sue, and you are at fault according to law. The way the law works when it comes to auto accidents if you had a suspended license and no insurance and you were following the law your car wouldn't have been there in the first place- so your fault.

Right or wrong that's the way it goes.

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Originally Posted by Meredith1978

No you can't sue, and you are at fault according to law. The way the law works when it comes to auto accidents if you had a suspended license and no insurance and you were following the law your car wouldn't have been there in the first place- so your fault.

right or wrong that's the way it goes.

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That may be the way it goes in your state but
In my state if you do not have a license or have a suspended one and no insurance it does not make you automatically at fault.
Were you both going straight or was one of you making a left hand turn?
You need to find out what an insurance company would say had you had insurance and work things out with them. Like was it 50/50 then you both pay for your own damage.
If it was 80/20% the one who is more at fault pays for some of the others damage... something like that.
Most likely they will say you pulled out on them and that is hard to prove.
In my state if you are making a left hand turn then you are automatically more at fault no matter what.

First, you really should pay more attention to rules. I moved this from the Introductions forum which is clearly marked as NOT the place to post questions.

Just as you ignored CA law to drive without insurance.

Second, you have no case against the city unless you can prove the city knew the Stop sign was down and failed to repair it in a reasonable time.

However, generally the person on the right has right of way. But if you preceded into the intersection while a car was oncoming you are, at least partially, at fault. Were the police called? Was a report made? Were you issued citations for lack of insurance and a suspended license.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Meredith1978

The way the law works when it comes to auto accidents if you had a suspended license and no insurance and you were following the law your car wouldn't have been there in the first place- so your fault.

right or wrong that's the way it goes.

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Can you provide the citation for that? As far as I am aware, whether a person has a suspended license or no insurance has NO bearing on fault in an accident. Fault is determined by the actions of the vehicles and their adherence to traffic laws.

Insurance or no insurance or license or not, has no bearing what so ever at fault.

If the person to the right had or knew there was a stop sign, they would be at fault.

If there was no sign, they really can not be held liable since they acted upon current traffic signals,

If the city was not aware of the sign they can not be sued either.

You can sue the other driver but they have no insurance, so unless they have a few grand in the bank ( and most likely no if no insurnace) you are just out of luck

The reason the lawyers will not sue, I bet you can not write them a 5000 check to start the case so they will only do one on a percent if they know they can collect, other side no insurance, means even if they win, no money

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Meredith1978

No you can't sue, and you are at fault according to law. The way the law works when it comes to auto accidents if you had a suspended license and no insurance and you were following the law your car wouldn't have been there in the first place- so your fault.

right or wrong that's the way it goes.

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Meredith I have to say at least in US law, if you really have no idea please don't post. From a moral issue, he is at fault for driving, but that is not how the law works, his legal status to drive does not make him at fault for the wreck,

The actual person who caused the wreck, ran the stop sign or pulled in front is the one at fault,

The drivers license or the insurance does not make anyone responsible by law for the wreck.

The attorneys are telling you that you can't sue because you don't have a clear way of proving that the city was negligent in fixing the stop sign. The fact remains that it'd be unlikely that you'd be able to collect from the other driver even if you did win so it'd be pointless. The case is not clear cut enough for them to take the risk of being able to collect their fees from a percentage of the amount awarded. Sorry, sounds like you will have to take a loss on this.

For future reference, once you get insurance you can get what is called Uninsured Motorist coverage which, if something like this happens again, you'll be covered.