Ashley, MI Personal Injury Law Firms & Lawyers

Good questions all: yes, your health insurance carrier wants to recoup its costs and they want a free ride from you to do it. So, if you do make a liability claim, the health insurance carrier will demand that it gets paid first. The hospital's liability carrier will be aware of this, so they will make sure that the other insurance company gets taken care of. But of course, you have to do all the work, pay for an attorney, negotiate the claim, etc. Finally, a medical liability carrier will fight every claim as if it is the worst claim they've ever had to fight: they will deny, delay, stonewall, throw technicalities, demand extraneous information and gin up defenses that don't make any sense but you will have do deal with anyway.

Yes, you should hire an attorney who is licensed to practice law in the state in which you would file a lawsuit, typically the residence of the driver of the other car that hit your car.

In Michigan there is an Owner Liability Statute that makes the owner liable when their car is permissively used and the negligence of the driver causes damages in a crash. In your circumstances you may have been able to contest the claim if you didn't give your ex permission to use the vehicle, if he stole the vehicle and/or if the Judgment of Divorce awarded the vehicle to him and you signed over the Title. You need to consult a lawyer and/or your divorce lawyer about these, and any other, defenses. However, if you didn't contest the matter when it was brought/pending and you let a Judgment be entered against you, it may well be too late to fix the problem. You should consult counsel to do some research on whether there is a way at this time to "fix" the problem/fight the Judgment. There is a Court Rule that allows you to ask for Relief from Judgment if you do so within 1 year of it being entered.