Frivolous Lawsuits/Ambulance Chasers

[Greenday]

Could have sworn I posted about this before but I can't find it under threads I've created.

A couple years ago, my girlfriend was pulling onto an on-ramp for a highway on her way home from a friend's house. She hit and killed some woman walking on the on-ramp. The woman was wearing all dark clothing. It was really late at night when there's no light from the sun. There were no streetlights. The police cleared my girlfriend of all wrongdoing.

A few months ago, she got a summons to inform her that the fiance of the deceased was suing her. They are claiming she was drunk (she hadn't had a drop that day), that she was texting while driving (she wasn't), and a bunch of other things (which she wasn't doing). It's a blatant attempt to sue for as many things as possible to try to get her to settle instead of facing all those charges.

Today she got another summons. This time, she's being sued by the deceased's, kids. Same lawyers. Same frivolous BS.

These scumbag ambulance chasers and these people suing her are causing my girlfriend all sorts of emotional distress (Which I'm suggesting she sue them all for as a result of bringing frivolous lawsuits against her). If this case even makes it to court without being thrown out, that's a great injustice.

[TheHuckster]

Ambulance chasers are the worst. There are obvious times where you have a good case to sue someone for accidents, and for those cases there are far better lawyers to hire than the jerks you see on local TV commercials.

If (and this is a big if) your girlfriend loses the suit, is this something that could at least be covered by her auto liability insurance?

Hopefully the court will see that there's no mention of any foul play or negligence in the accident report and will dismiss the case quickly.

[Greenday]

If (and this is a big if) your girlfriend loses the suit, is this something that could at least be covered by her auto liability insurance?

I don't know. It took place in Canada so I'm not as familiar with the local laws.

[s_stabeler]

That's why I prefer the UK system- over here, the loser pays the costs. It means that the more frivolous lawsuits don't generally get filed.

[Jetfire]

I believe Canada has the same Losers Pay rules, like the UK system (ours is mostly UK based unless you are in Quebec where it has a more France base). We are heavily influenced by the States and some of the Lawyer commercials I've noticed lately have more of a US feel to them, making me think they're trying to pull a US style system in.

Hopefully this gets sorted out quickly one way or another.

[Greenday]

Well, if it costs you money and it's frivolous, you can countersue for lawyer fees and such.

[s_stabeler]

yes, but in this case it's automatic.