Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

Re: Accident uninsured motorist

If you are handling this outside of court, informally, anyone can ask anything they want, and you can respond that they can take a long walk off a short pier. Of course, if he is saying that he will go to the insurance comapny after a certain date, that is a risk you will have to take. Because the accident really should be reported to the insurance company anyway, there is no wrong in him reporting it. However, it might be wrong to try to extort money out of you by threatening to report the accident if you don't pay, but only if he is not otherwise entitled to the money (see below).

However, first things first. I am confused from your question as to who caused the accident. Until it is clear who caused the accident, there is no point talking about anything else. Your question seems to suggest that the other driver hit your husband, so it sounds like the other driver caused the accident. But you did not give any details, so that would be a guess on my part.

It is not relevant whether someone got a ticket, although it may help decide who caused the accident. It is not uncommon for a police officer who arrives later (who did not see the accident) to not give anyone a ticket. That does NOT say anything about who should pay for the damage.

For some reason, many drivers who cause accidents turn around and demand that YOU pay for the accident that THEY caused. I suppose that a person who is a reckless driver is the kind of person who cannot admit that they might be in the wrong and does not take responsibility for their actions. Otherwise they would have been driving more carefuly to begin with.

So before you start talking about damages, you need to get clear in your own mind and with the other party what actually happened and who is to blame the accident.

You should try to hear what is the other driver's story of what happened. Then you should probably ask another question here as to who is responsible for the accident based on both side's stories.

After you hear what the other side is saying, you might write a letter explaining the facts of what happened from your perspective and ask him to explain why he is not responsible for the accident. You may get a letter back in which he may admit some aspects of the accident, even if disputing other parts of it. Trouble is, you may also make admissions that you will later regret, so you probably should talk to a lawyer first about the facts of the case.

Remember that Virginia has something called "contributory negligence." That means that if both sides were at fault, nobody gets anything from the other.

Re: Accident uninsured motorist

The oral agreement your husband worked out with the other driver, as you can see by now, is virtually meaningless. Of course, this driver can make any demands he wishes and, even punctuate them with a time and date.(Yes, it's all perfectly legal in answer to one of your questions.) However, whether or not this driver

will ever be able to actually recover on any of them will all depend upon what credible and corroborative evidence he is able to muster in court in support of his claim(s).