If you are in a car accident with a delivery driver in Wisconsin or suffer a passenger injury as a result of a delivery driver, you may be entitled to compensation for injuries.
Murphy & Prachthauser represents individuals involved in car accidents in Wisconsin. If you’ve been hit by a delivery driver, we can help you.
How to File a Lawsuit If You Are Hit By A Delivery Driver
If you were involved in a motor vehicle accident with a delivery driver, and the delivery driver was negligent, you have the right to sue for compensation. But it is important to understand that the delivery driver may have no insurance coverage. Why? If a delivery driver is using their own vehicle, their personal policy will not likely cover an accident.
If their insurance policy does not cover them because they are driving their own vehicle, then you may have to rely on the business insurance policy for the driver’s employer, or even your own uninsured motorist coverage. If however, the delivery driver is driving a company vehicle or is covered on the company’s insurance policy, you will have a higher likelihood of recovering damages because that type of insurance policy is designed to ensure coverage is available.
To make sure you can recover for medical bills or lost wages after any accident, it is important that you immediately call a lawyer to help you work through the details. A lawyer can provide you with expertise, at no cost to start, to help you proceed with your personal injury claim.
If You Injured By A Delivery Driver As A Passenger
If you are injured in a car accident as a passenger, you have your own set of rights to recover for injury or general compensation. You have the right to file a lawsuit against the negligent driver, whether that is your host driver, or another driver, to recover for your medical bills, lost wages, or other costs. As a passenger in the delivery vehicle, you are entitled to recover damages from the negligent party, which may be both drivers or one driver and the business at fault. If there is no coverage on the delivery vehicle, you may have a claim for uninsured motorist benefits under your own policy.
A Delivery Driver Accident Example
A caller recently asked me if I could help him prevent the state from revoking his car registrations. His son had been in an accident using a vehicle titled in his name. The son was covered on the car insurance policy, but the insurance company denied coverage because at the time of the accident, he was delivering food for compensation. He had just pulled out of the restaurant parking lot when he was struck by another car, who had the right of way.
The owner of the other car submitted his claim for property damage to his insurer, who paid the claim. On payment of that claim, the insurance company then became entitled to recover the amount it paid, roughly $8,000, from this delivery driver and any insurance that applied.
The delivery driver submitted the accident claim to the insurance company that insured the car titled in his father’s name. After doing some investigation, the insurance company denied coverage based on an exclusion in the policy for accidents occurring while delivering something for compensation. It turns out the exclusion is very common in most, if not all, personal auto policies.
What You Need To Know As A Delivery Driver
Every auto policy has several different coverage parts. One covers your liability for damages you could be held responsible for to a third party, if you cause an accident and are sued for the damages, for example. Another part of the coverage is for damage to your car; if your car is damaged in an accident, you can collect from your own insurance for the repair costs, minus a deductible. On this part, typically called collision coverage, there is a similar exclusion if your vehicle is transporting someone or something for compensation.
If you are a delivery driver, you may have an exclusion in your personal auto policy that means you are NOT covered if you are in an accident on the job — vehicle damage to your car, injury to another person, property damage — nothing will be covered by your car insurance company and you will have to pay out of pocket.
If you find that you are being sued for damages after a delivery accident, urge the plaintiff to consider litigation against your employer instead of you personally. An employer generally is held responsible when an on-duty employee negligently injures a member of the public.
At Murphy & Prachthauser we practice law the way it should be practiced – motivated and equipped to do our best for you. We take pride in being good lawyers who help people.