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Malpractice against my lawyer
Anonymous4 views3 answers
I was involved in a DUI case which had a hit and run. I damaged cars as well as totaled the car I was driving. My BAC was high and I was under the legal age at the time. My lawyer negotiated a plea bargain and the hit and run charges were dropped, and I was happy with the other terms of the plea. One term of the plea was a restitution stipulation saying . After asking for the insurance poilcy of the car I was driving to check and see if the limits were high enough to cover the damages, my lawyer told me that most likely the insurance company would pay for the damages. The plea bargain was entered but the insurance company of the car I was driving is not paying. The say its bc I was under 25 and a DUI was involved. My lawyer told me most likely insurance would pay. Do i have a claim?
As you quote "most likely" - that's not a guaranty. You could call called your insurance agent from your cell phone if you had a question instead of asking your lawyer without providing him with a copy of your policy.
Matthew MurilloEstate Planning AttorneyRedlands, CA ·
Not necessarily. Its your responsibility to know what you're policy covers. Why wouldn't you have just called insurance to find out? Anyway, I assume your talking about possible malpractice on the part of your Criminal Lawyer. However, it doesn't sound as though there is anything wrong with how your lawyer handled the DUI case. If you would have been convicted of the DUI regardless, than your in the same situation. However, the DUI doesn't really have anything to do with the accident as far as whether not the other person would have sued you to get compensation for damages.
Look at this way, your insurance may have decided not to cover damages for the collision, but that is not a defense to a DUI. So, you can't necessarily say that the only reason you took a plea is because you thought insurance would cover damages. Since a Plea to a DUI is not a "plea" to an accident. The fact that your insurance wont pay now, alone, won't give you grounds for withdrawing your plea or a malpractice claim.
