Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Your insurance company will provide you with a lawyer to defend the case. If you receive court papers, send them to your insurance company right away.

attorney stone's answer is correct. your insurance company will hire and pay a lawyer to defend you. your insurance company also has a duty to protect you. this means that it is very unlikely that the lawsuit against you will cost you anything. you will have to cooperate with your insurance co and the lawyer it hires. you will probably have to answer written questions, give a deposition (verbally answer questions by the suing lawyer in front of a court reporter) and perhaps appear at a trial. most importantly don't lose sleep over it and be honest in your answers and dealings. it should be ok. good luck.

All of the above is true except that less than 5% of personal injury claims go to trial; also, even in cases involving the issue of fault, often the deposition of the defendant [you] is not taken. Your insurance company will use an attorney who has handled many such suits and who will tell you if your insurance coverage might not be adequate to cover Plaintiff's damages [normally it is more than enough]. I handled the defense of such cases for more than ten years.

Just let your insurance company handle it. That is why you pay them.

The above responses were all good. I'd like to add one point however, DO NOT AGREE with your insurance provided lawyer or adjuster to provide testimony that is untrue. At the end of the day, your insurance company AND the lawyer they provide are primarily in it to protect THEIR pocketbook!

If you think that you were at fault, even partially, make sure to write - this is important must be in writing - to your adjuster AND your lawyer a letter demanding to settle your case within your policy limits! If you do that and they refuse, any excess judgment will become your insurance company's problem, not yours. For example, if you only had minimal coverage (15/30) and the judgment is $100K, you will not be responsible for the balance if you follow what I suggested. Of course the plaintiff must be willing to accept your policy limits if the above situation is the case, otherwise it won't work. Nonetheless, you must have the proof that you asked to resolve this within your policy limits and your insurance company took a gamble with your credit and at your peril.

If you do these things and your insurance company fails to pay any excess judgment, you call me and we will sue them for bad faith which is a whole different ball game.

Good luck.