One of the areas that our law firm really focuses on is defending impaired driving cases. And a common question that comes up for clients is whether you know when they get in a car accident, and they get charged with a DUI or impaired driving and the car is totaled, or say there’s significant damages. Will your insurance company cover that situation if they say they win they’re impaired driving trial so let’s say their acquitted. The very interesting question, the long and short of it is this that there is an exclusion under insurance contracts that if you’re convicted of impaired driving or dangerous driving, the insurance company will not pay for the property damage to your vehicle causes to your vehicle or to a lamppost or a building. We’ve had clients run into homes before it costs $80,000 in damage if you win your trial so you have your trial and you win it, now the insurance company is in a conundrum because you’ve won your trial it becomes quite difficult for them to resist coverage. Under that scenario, most clients are able to successfully claim the coverage for them for their vehicle. Some insurance companies will dig in on that situation you I’ve seen it happen on occasion where the odd one will dig in and I think if they really dug in, they might be able to win their case but they seem to invariably give up so in most situations, it seems that you when you’re impaired driving trial, you’re dangerous driving trials, you’re going to get coverage. Fortunately, a couple tips and I’m not an insurance lawyers but it obviously a question that rises with our clients. Often, I refer the client to a specialist in that area who sues for motor vehicle collision coverage. You’re going to want to do a couple of things to you know, leading up to the trial you need to file a document called Proof of loss which is a one-page document setting out your loss. And the most important thing to remember is there’s a one-year limitation period to sue your insurance company to get that coverage, you only have one year and sometimes your impaired driving trials after that one year so you’re going to want to start your claim before the one year if you lose your trial of course you can always abandon the claim but you’ve got to preserve your rights. So, this is very it’s a tricky area. I have seen the insurance company dig in unfortunately, but invariably they seem to give up you know, even in the cases that I’ve seen them dig in, there’s usually a negotiated settlement so you should be good to go. In most cases if you win your trial and get acquitted in area.
