October 30, 2025 • 17 mins
For this edition of Colbert Court, Attorney Glenn Klausman brings us the case of a caller named Johnny, who is a Colbert show listener, and was in an accident after his pick-up truck rear-ended a car. Now, Johnny is being sued by the other driver’s insurance company and his car insurance company is refusing to pay anything.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, guys, every day the glow sticks is a great
idea to keep the kids safe and visible when they're
crossing the roads at night. The problem with the glow
in the dark necklaces is it always devaults in the
kids whipping the absolute piss out of each other. At
least I like you when the baseball dance jone just
(00:27):
whipping the pits out of each other. It's funny, all right,
seven seven zero three one you're fourth clock, He were
his grand g r A and D. Slide over to
real radio, down of him and send that off for
your chance in one thousand bucks.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Some gym.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
There's dead. Hello, Jack is here? Ye crosses ear?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Let's do Colbert Court.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
When you are listening to is real?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well sort of.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The participants are not actors as a fact.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
This is, however, a real case that will be decided
here in hour Fourum.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Not Coleburg Court. That's right, Cold Red Court, brought to
you by our good friend Glynn Klausman or Klosman Law.
That's k l A U S M A N Law
dot com offices right there in winter Park four oh
seven nine one seven seventeen eighteen car crash called clothsman.
Guy's getting loud for mister gun claws man. Kay, what's up, buddy,
Good to see you. There you go, Mike, Mike, Mike,
(01:15):
how you doing okay? Yeah, yeah, you're doing good. How's buddy?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Good?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Good?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Good?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You look good man? Thanks?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Thanks. I don't know if your vision is getting worse.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
No, no, no, I don't see any prep for Christmas
this year? Does that start?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So I'm gonna start. Yeah, I'm gonna start with the
Sama close beard. I'm stop stop trimming it. Oh you
have I have? How long does it take it to
grow out to Santa? Oh? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Atletic six, seven weeks, eight weeks. I've got time, all right,
very good time, all right. Glenn is a personal injury
attorney here in Central Florida. I've been here for quite
a while, specializing in car accidents. That's why he comes
in and brings a case with him. Usually these are
cases that he has either argued or maybe are in
house and in process. We will read that case, we'll
try to figure it out between the members of the show.
(01:56):
As Fatica is here, Ah, he's always here. We have
we have our own in house attorney. Faticus inch I
think it is, it's and and we'll start to figure
it out. Then, of course we turn it over to
Glenn and find out what the actual answer is. We
do this segment because you know, the law can be
very confusing, and we want people to be able to
have a chance if they get into an accident and
(02:16):
get themselves whole again. And we feature some of these
cases to show you that maybe you have a little
bit more say or power than you think when it
comes to litigating your own case. Is this a case
you have, very Glenn.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
This is a caller who listens to the show called
me yesterday with this fact pattern, and we're trying to
figure out if we can help them or not.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wow. Really, yeah, so this hasn't even been resolved yet.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
No, it's a caller yesterday. This is you just got
a problem, and I changed the name. But you know,
this is an actual, factual, factual situation.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And this is actually a really interesting concept we've never
really dealt with before. Even of all the years we've
done this segment, this particular situation has never come up.
So here we go. Johnny was in an accident one
evening when his pickup truck rear into the car. Johnny
and the driver got out and they looked at both vehicles.
The other driver said he called the police and was
told it would be over an hour wait. The other
(03:06):
driver did not want to wait, and he took a
photo of Johnny's license tag and a photo of Johnny's
driver's license that was two years ago. Now, Johnny is
being sued by the other driver's insurance company for the
twelve thousand dollars sum they paid to fix the other
driver's bumper and for the other driver's injury. Johnny calls
(03:28):
his car insurance company and they were refusing to pay
anything because Johnny failed to timely report the accident to
his insurance company. Is Johnny going to be out of
pocket twelve thousand dollars?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So basically this is a almost like a statute of
limitations argument?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Is it not?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Like a is like, is there a time limit on
when you can seek damages?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, the insurance policy says you need to timely notify
your insurance company if there's a claim that's going to
be made. That's what they're hanging her hat on.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And because he rear ended the other driver, he would
be the at fault driver. Correct, So because something like
this had happened to my mom and I, but she
was the victim of someone hitting her behind. She still
called her insurance company and we were like, let's hope
your rates don't go up just because you did your
due diligence. But it was because he was the perpetrator.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, now in this case, yeah yeah, And in the
situation you're talking about, your rates are not supposed to
go up because it's not a fault event.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Yeah, but it's Florida.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, now see, the other driver didn't want to wait.
He took a picture of Johnny's license tag and a
picture of Johnny's driver's license, but it doesn't say anything
about Johnny's insurance. So what they're saying here is is
the guy that Johnny rear ended went to his own
insurance to get his car repaired, and now his insurance
company is coming after Johnny for the damages because Johnny
was the at fault driver, right, But they never got
a police.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Report, never got a police report.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well outside of that, within that two years, his insurance
company never once approached Johnny's insurance company.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, that's a great question. And what apparently happened here
was Johnny's driver's license had an address that's not Johnny's
current license. So when they wrote to Johnny oh Man
and there was no forwarding that it got returned. And
then they assumed Johnny had no insurance, so his the
driver whose car got hit from behind, filed an uninsured
(05:24):
motorist coverage claim collected on that and that's where the
twelve thousand dollars comes in for the bumper and that
guy's injuries under his own uninsured motors coverage. Then the
guy whose car got rear ended, his insurance company says,
we pay out twelve thousand. Now we found out where
Johnny is, so we're suing Johnny to get our twelve
thousand dollars back.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah. Well, did Johnny agree to let this guy just
take a picture of his license and his plate and
leave or was he just told that's the what was
gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Johnny agreed because I guess you figured there wasn't much
to it, and he's happy that they're not calling the
police because if they call the police, maybe we'll get
a ticket. So yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I mean, how do you know he had injuries? I mean,
you know, how do we know that the accident caused
the injuries because there was no police report made.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Even if it was the police report, how would you
know the accident caused the injuries. You know, the fellow
was okay at the time, but you know.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Right, we know that doesn't mean that.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Yeah, can Johnny say this guy put the car in
reverse and backed up into him.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Ah that's what they said in your case, Hack, But
you had a dashcrera.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I did faticas. This is a good one, buddy, because
I mean, you know, really here, I mean this is
it looks like it's all in Johnny's lap. The Johnny
is the one that dropped the ball across the board,
and he may be out this twelve K.
Speaker 6 (06:32):
If I may go on with my claim, I.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Have a question for the court.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Absolutely comedy movie nineteen ninety nine Blue Streak starring Mount Lawrence,
have catched that flick? A jewel thief turns to the
Hide and Place after a stint in jail, only to
find that his diamond is buried underneath the new constructive
police station.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Oh wow, that's a dilemma.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, I don't remember that one.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Well, I'll bring it up to the court today for
a good reason. The police officers were gone for how long?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
One hour?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
What was happening trending day two? Denzel and Ethan Hall?
What in the world this is where I would like
to claim my flag. This car accident is as if
it never happened.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Oh really, because.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
It is Florida state law that police must show up
who said car accident? And if not, no red and
blue means no lawsuit for you.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You yeah, because we don't know that. We don't know truthfully,
with no police report, we do we really know who's
at fault.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well that's a good question. I mean if the fellow
that got reminded said he got re rendered by Jenny.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well, you know, I could I got hit by a
terry acklie back, then you would pickup truck. I mean
a dog running into me. I got your horse came
out of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Now, but he happened to get Johnny's tag number and
his license and his driver's license picture.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
What means what about now this policy that you know
they'll have AI assistance or you know, even if you
try to file a police report, they'll just tell you
to take photo because there just aren't enough troopers in
most cases to respond to car accidents.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
So you're kind of stuck between a rock and a
hard place.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Your insurance company wants a police report, but the police
are saying, we don't have the time and take your report.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right or the manpower, because we're doing other things that
are more important.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So what do you do, especially.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
When you call it in and it's a no injury thing,
you call in. Has anybody who heard it the scene?
Do you need the EMS to show up? No, we don't. Well, Dennick,
it's a little back burner rather than being on the
front person.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
A lot of times you'll just say, just exchange information
without a certain amount. This seems to exceed a certain amount. However,
I believe it might be Florida law. Within two weeks
of moving you have to change your address on your
driver's license.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, you are supposed to change your dress ninety days
sixty days one of the two.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, kah, but that was kind of after the fact. No,
I agree, Johnny screwed up here and the forwarding would
have obviously been lost. But also with his own car insurance,
don't they have to pay that if he pays his fees,
don't they have to pay for the fees out. I mean,
wouldn't the car insurance, wouldn't Johnny's car insurance fight this
because because there's there's no proof the guy was injured
(09:07):
during the crash, and that would be the majority of
the fees here.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Right, Well, yeah, there's probably ten thousand dollars for the
guy's injury, right and two thousands for his bumper. And
State Farm is the company that paid it because that
was his uninsured motors coverage, and they paid it because
he produced evidence that he had medical bills and injuries
that were worth that amount at least.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, so yeah, there were medical bills, there were medical
records that justified the athault party's insurance company to pay
the claim, and they did.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, I mean, then Johnny's stuck. I mean, I think
the question. I think Johnny stuck then, because I mean,
Johnny's the one to dropp the ball across the board here.
Johnny did not report that, he didn't take care of
his address, he didn't do all this stuff. So really
the reason this exists is because Johnny dropped the ball
across the board, did not inform the insurance company, did
not get the forward. Two years went by. I guess
(09:57):
he thought it was just going to be under the
you know, water and bridge. But that's not the case.
Is twelve thousand dollars, somebody's got to be remunerated.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Well, Johnny figured they didn't look like it was much
damage in the back of the bumper. The guy said, hey,
I'm out of here. I don't need to stick around.
Johnny figured, hey, my good fortune, I don't have the
police coming out to give me a ticket. And I
never heard from the sky again until oh, well, yeah,
now I get.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Sued bad Johnny.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah. So Johnny's position is, well, I paid for insurance
at the time I had insurance. Why can't they now
pay the twelve thousand dollars because I paid insurance to
have coverage for.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's really, to be honest with me, you, that was
the crux of my entire argument. If his fees are up,
why I mean, is there a statute of limitations.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It's not so much a statute of limitations. The insurance
company says, we've got language in our policy that says,
when you get in a car accident and a claim
is made, you need to notify us timely, and obviously
two years isn't timely. So that's the whole you know
thing we got going here. We got going to conflict
between I paid for this insurance, you're supposed to cover me,
(10:57):
and they're saying, oh, but you didn't comply with the
terms of the policy, and we're prejudiced by you're not complying.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So I guess Johnny's agreement to let the guy leave
is really his biggest mistake. He should have just said,
I don't care if you want to leave or not leave.
We're calling a cop and we're getting a police report
because this is important. And even though the guy didn't
look like he had injuries, there was a bumper. You know,
the bumper was two thousand dollars in damage. That impact
would lead you to believe that maybe it could have
been big enough to cause maybe a little neck issue
(11:24):
or something, who knows.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think at the scene it didn't look that bad
because two thousand dollars it doesn't have to be that
much to a one thousand dollars bumper repair these days.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Well, I was going to say, I think, you know,
the bigger issue rather than the police, because the other
driver clearly wasn't going to wait for an officer to arrive,
Johnny said, okay, well, then let me take a picture
of the damage. Let me take a picture of your
driver's license, your insurance and then went home and called
insure his insurance company and told them what happened.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
See, if Johnny had called his insurance company, we wouldn't
have this case in front of us today.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Oh really, so let's go around the room. I believe
Johnny's stuck.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I think he's stuck as well. Unfortunately, agreed.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
I believe he's good. The car accident never happened.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
What say you an, You know you're still going to try, right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah. The issue is is the insurance company. Is Johnny's
insurance company prejudiced by him not notifying his insurance company timely.
So it's not as open and shut as we've got
language and a policy that says you have to timely
notify us. The law still is. They would need to
show that Johnny maliciously his insurance company is somehow prejudiced
(12:31):
by the fact that he didn't get a hold of them.
At least that's the argument that we're going to make.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Okay, so let me stop you real quick, explain what
you mean by prejudice.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Prejudice. Okay, his insurance company says, you didn't notify us,
so we're not to pay. And we turn around and say, well,
wait a second, tell us how you are harmed by
Johnny not letting you know. The facts are, the guy
had these medical bills, medical records, ten thousand dollars was
paid out. What could you have done, as Johnny's insurance
(12:57):
company differently if you had the medical records and medical bills,
you know they're The argument is they wouldn't have been
able to do anything different. I mean, they're just trying
to get off the hook by using that policy language.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
But the issue is how were they How is his
insurance company harmed? You know, they're the fifth thing. They
would come in and say, well, if we knew, we
could have defended Johnny and maybe not paid out ten
thousand dollars, If we knew, we could have defended Johnny
and not paid out two thousand. But in this case,
Johnny's clearly at fault. So you got to pay at
least two grand for the bumper, And then the guy's
got medical records and medical bills that caused his own
(13:32):
insurance company to pay it. You as Johnny's insurance company.
How are you going to not end up paying that
money if Johnny had notified you?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Right? So in other word, argument In other words, the
time doesn't really change the situation.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It makes it much more difficult, it's so much more difficult.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
But it doesn't exonerate them of their responsibility.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Johnny still has a shot at this. Wow shot it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Okay, well that's better news than what we thought.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But you know the problem is if somebody out there
gets in this situation where you don't think the police
are going to get called, then you're in an accident,
you should still notify your insurance company so you don't
get in this problem here where they're going to say
more time they notified in and then maybe some court
down the road is going to say, you know, we're
going to stick to that policy language and we're not
going to care whether the insurance company's prejudice or not.
(14:16):
They got policy language that says they don't have to
pay it, so they don't have to pay it. So,
you know, I don't know where it's going to end up,
but we're going to make the argument for Johnny that
the insurance company, his own company, has to show they
were somehow prejudiced by not getting timely noticed.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Is there any downside? And by downside I mean a
rate increase for Johnny. Let's say he notifies his insurance
company involved in an accident I re are ended this
person and they never make a claim.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Then there shouldn't be. They never make a claim, the
police never come out.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
Then even though you did what you're supposed to do
by notify your insurance company, but then there's no rate hike, right.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
There shouldn't be because your insurance company is not.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Paying anything because there's no claim.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Well, they're not paying anything and you're not getting a ticket,
so there shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We definitely want an update on this case so people
out there getting an accent. If somebody says, hey, look,
I'm in a hurry, I'm going to exchange this information,
what would you say. Would you say, I don't care
if you're in a hurry or not, We're going to cop,
or even if he leaves, call a cop, or what
I mean? What would you do?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Seriously, if you have an injury, you need to call
the police. If you don't have an injury and it's
one hundred percent your fault, you still need to notify
your insurance company. Yeah, even if the other guy says, hey,
I'm on my way, don't worry about it, because two
days later he may decide that, yeah I am hurt.
Yeah I'm going to go to the doctor. He starts
going to the doctor. They start running MRIs. It shows
(15:37):
he's got dotage and oh boy, yeah, just that sentence
was twelve.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Grand yep, very nice. So the car accident did happen?
If you're joining, did happen?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I mean, you know, in illegal we have a legal
phrase called the tipsy Coachman's rule. That's when an appeals
court decides that the lower court did something right but
for the wrong reason. So they uphold what the lower
court did because they did it right, said the wrong thing.
So what Ross did today is the tipsy coach Wow. Ye,
(16:10):
the wrong reason but the right result.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Wow. What an interesting case. Good job today, really super interesting.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Get up, good laugh for Glenn, and don't forget to
have your uninsured motors coverage. Like back to you said
he got it because he hear you talk about it
all the time. Glenn, what are you giving up for
Halloween this year?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh, you'll have to come by and see what you
know what, I don't give out, I'll bring in for you.
Guys are very good.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
You should ball out and give out to buy chocolate.
That's what you should do, straight up ball out to
buy chocolate for everybody.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Only if Jimmy does the same.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Glenn, how good one. You know they all have it.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I haven't been doing I haven't been doing the biscuity
because I'm trying to. I'm not doing I heard. Yeah,
you guys, you know that's all right. We have want
to suffer fall out. We have to suffer part of
the fall.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's Clawsman Law k L A U S M A
in law dot com offices right there in Winner Park
four oh seven nine one seven seventeen eighteen car crash.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Called Clausman can seine you buddy? You gotta man all right?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Four O seven nine one six one four one fresh
keyword now
Hey, guys, every day the glow sticks is a great
idea to keep the kids safe and visible when they're
crossing the roads at night. The problem with the glow
in the dark necklaces is it always devaults in the
kids whipping the absolute piss out of each other. At
least I like you when the baseball dance jone just
(00:27):
whipping the pits out of each other. It's funny, all right,
seven seven zero three one you're fourth clock, He were
his grand g r A and D. Slide over to
real radio, down of him and send that off for
your chance in one thousand bucks.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Some gym.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
There's dead. Hello, Jack is here? Ye crosses ear?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Let's do Colbert Court.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
When you are listening to is real?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well sort of.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The participants are not actors as a fact.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
This is, however, a real case that will be decided
here in hour Fourum.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Not Coleburg Court. That's right, Cold Red Court, brought to
you by our good friend Glynn Klausman or Klosman Law.
That's k l A U S M A N Law
dot com offices right there in winter Park four oh
seven nine one seven seventeen eighteen car crash called clothsman.
Guy's getting loud for mister gun claws man. Kay, what's up, buddy,
Good to see you. There you go, Mike, Mike, Mike,
(01:15):
how you doing okay? Yeah, yeah, you're doing good. How's buddy?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Good?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Good?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Good?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You look good man? Thanks?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Thanks. I don't know if your vision is getting worse.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
No, no, no, I don't see any prep for Christmas
this year? Does that start?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So I'm gonna start. Yeah, I'm gonna start with the
Sama close beard. I'm stop stop trimming it. Oh you
have I have? How long does it take it to
grow out to Santa? Oh? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Atletic six, seven weeks, eight weeks. I've got time, all right,
very good time, all right. Glenn is a personal injury
attorney here in Central Florida. I've been here for quite
a while, specializing in car accidents. That's why he comes
in and brings a case with him. Usually these are
cases that he has either argued or maybe are in
house and in process. We will read that case, we'll
try to figure it out between the members of the show.
(01:56):
As Fatica is here, Ah, he's always here. We have
we have our own in house attorney. Faticus inch I
think it is, it's and and we'll start to figure
it out. Then, of course we turn it over to
Glenn and find out what the actual answer is. We
do this segment because you know, the law can be
very confusing, and we want people to be able to
have a chance if they get into an accident and
(02:16):
get themselves whole again. And we feature some of these
cases to show you that maybe you have a little
bit more say or power than you think when it
comes to litigating your own case. Is this a case
you have, very Glenn.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
This is a caller who listens to the show called
me yesterday with this fact pattern, and we're trying to
figure out if we can help them or not.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wow. Really, yeah, so this hasn't even been resolved yet.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
No, it's a caller yesterday. This is you just got
a problem, and I changed the name. But you know,
this is an actual, factual, factual situation.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And this is actually a really interesting concept we've never
really dealt with before. Even of all the years we've
done this segment, this particular situation has never come up.
So here we go. Johnny was in an accident one
evening when his pickup truck rear into the car. Johnny
and the driver got out and they looked at both vehicles.
The other driver said he called the police and was
told it would be over an hour wait. The other
(03:06):
driver did not want to wait, and he took a
photo of Johnny's license tag and a photo of Johnny's
driver's license that was two years ago. Now, Johnny is
being sued by the other driver's insurance company for the
twelve thousand dollars sum they paid to fix the other
driver's bumper and for the other driver's injury. Johnny calls
(03:28):
his car insurance company and they were refusing to pay
anything because Johnny failed to timely report the accident to
his insurance company. Is Johnny going to be out of
pocket twelve thousand dollars?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So basically this is a almost like a statute of
limitations argument?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Is it not?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Like a is like, is there a time limit on
when you can seek damages?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, the insurance policy says you need to timely notify
your insurance company if there's a claim that's going to
be made. That's what they're hanging her hat on.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And because he rear ended the other driver, he would
be the at fault driver. Correct, So because something like
this had happened to my mom and I, but she
was the victim of someone hitting her behind. She still
called her insurance company and we were like, let's hope
your rates don't go up just because you did your
due diligence. But it was because he was the perpetrator.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, now in this case, yeah yeah, And in the
situation you're talking about, your rates are not supposed to
go up because it's not a fault event.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Yeah, but it's Florida.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, now see, the other driver didn't want to wait.
He took a picture of Johnny's license tag and a
picture of Johnny's driver's license, but it doesn't say anything
about Johnny's insurance. So what they're saying here is is
the guy that Johnny rear ended went to his own
insurance to get his car repaired, and now his insurance
company is coming after Johnny for the damages because Johnny
was the at fault driver, right, But they never got
a police.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Report, never got a police report.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well outside of that, within that two years, his insurance
company never once approached Johnny's insurance company.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, that's a great question. And what apparently happened here
was Johnny's driver's license had an address that's not Johnny's
current license. So when they wrote to Johnny oh Man
and there was no forwarding that it got returned. And
then they assumed Johnny had no insurance, so his the
driver whose car got hit from behind, filed an uninsured
(05:24):
motorist coverage claim collected on that and that's where the
twelve thousand dollars comes in for the bumper and that
guy's injuries under his own uninsured motors coverage. Then the
guy whose car got rear ended, his insurance company says,
we pay out twelve thousand. Now we found out where
Johnny is, so we're suing Johnny to get our twelve
thousand dollars back.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah. Well, did Johnny agree to let this guy just
take a picture of his license and his plate and
leave or was he just told that's the what was
gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Johnny agreed because I guess you figured there wasn't much
to it, and he's happy that they're not calling the
police because if they call the police, maybe we'll get
a ticket. So yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I mean, how do you know he had injuries? I mean,
you know, how do we know that the accident caused
the injuries because there was no police report made.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Even if it was the police report, how would you
know the accident caused the injuries. You know, the fellow
was okay at the time, but you know.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Right, we know that doesn't mean that.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Yeah, can Johnny say this guy put the car in
reverse and backed up into him.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Ah that's what they said in your case, Hack, But
you had a dashcrera.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I did faticas. This is a good one, buddy, because
I mean, you know, really here, I mean this is
it looks like it's all in Johnny's lap. The Johnny
is the one that dropped the ball across the board,
and he may be out this twelve K.
Speaker 6 (06:32):
If I may go on with my claim, I.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Have a question for the court.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Absolutely comedy movie nineteen ninety nine Blue Streak starring Mount Lawrence,
have catched that flick? A jewel thief turns to the
Hide and Place after a stint in jail, only to
find that his diamond is buried underneath the new constructive
police station.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Oh wow, that's a dilemma.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, I don't remember that one.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Well, I'll bring it up to the court today for
a good reason. The police officers were gone for how long?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
One hour?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
What was happening trending day two? Denzel and Ethan Hall?
What in the world this is where I would like
to claim my flag. This car accident is as if
it never happened.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Oh really, because.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
It is Florida state law that police must show up
who said car accident? And if not, no red and
blue means no lawsuit for you.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You yeah, because we don't know that. We don't know truthfully,
with no police report, we do we really know who's
at fault.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well that's a good question. I mean if the fellow
that got reminded said he got re rendered by Jenny.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well, you know, I could I got hit by a
terry acklie back, then you would pickup truck. I mean
a dog running into me. I got your horse came
out of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Now, but he happened to get Johnny's tag number and
his license and his driver's license picture.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
What means what about now this policy that you know
they'll have AI assistance or you know, even if you
try to file a police report, they'll just tell you
to take photo because there just aren't enough troopers in
most cases to respond to car accidents.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
So you're kind of stuck between a rock and a
hard place.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Your insurance company wants a police report, but the police
are saying, we don't have the time and take your report.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right or the manpower, because we're doing other things that
are more important.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So what do you do, especially.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
When you call it in and it's a no injury thing,
you call in. Has anybody who heard it the scene?
Do you need the EMS to show up? No, we don't. Well, Dennick,
it's a little back burner rather than being on the
front person.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
A lot of times you'll just say, just exchange information
without a certain amount. This seems to exceed a certain amount. However,
I believe it might be Florida law. Within two weeks
of moving you have to change your address on your
driver's license.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, you are supposed to change your dress ninety days
sixty days one of the two.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, kah, but that was kind of after the fact. No,
I agree, Johnny screwed up here and the forwarding would
have obviously been lost. But also with his own car insurance,
don't they have to pay that if he pays his fees,
don't they have to pay for the fees out. I mean,
wouldn't the car insurance, wouldn't Johnny's car insurance fight this
because because there's there's no proof the guy was injured
(09:07):
during the crash, and that would be the majority of
the fees here.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Right, Well, yeah, there's probably ten thousand dollars for the
guy's injury, right and two thousands for his bumper. And
State Farm is the company that paid it because that
was his uninsured motors coverage, and they paid it because
he produced evidence that he had medical bills and injuries
that were worth that amount at least.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, so yeah, there were medical bills, there were medical
records that justified the athault party's insurance company to pay
the claim, and they did.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, I mean, then Johnny's stuck. I mean, I think
the question. I think Johnny stuck then, because I mean,
Johnny's the one to dropp the ball across the board here.
Johnny did not report that, he didn't take care of
his address, he didn't do all this stuff. So really
the reason this exists is because Johnny dropped the ball
across the board, did not inform the insurance company, did
not get the forward. Two years went by. I guess
(09:57):
he thought it was just going to be under the
you know, water and bridge. But that's not the case.
Is twelve thousand dollars, somebody's got to be remunerated.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Well, Johnny figured they didn't look like it was much
damage in the back of the bumper. The guy said, hey,
I'm out of here. I don't need to stick around.
Johnny figured, hey, my good fortune, I don't have the
police coming out to give me a ticket. And I
never heard from the sky again until oh, well, yeah,
now I get.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Sued bad Johnny.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah. So Johnny's position is, well, I paid for insurance
at the time I had insurance. Why can't they now
pay the twelve thousand dollars because I paid insurance to
have coverage for.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's really, to be honest with me, you, that was
the crux of my entire argument. If his fees are up,
why I mean, is there a statute of limitations.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It's not so much a statute of limitations. The insurance
company says, we've got language in our policy that says,
when you get in a car accident and a claim
is made, you need to notify us timely, and obviously
two years isn't timely. So that's the whole you know
thing we got going here. We got going to conflict
between I paid for this insurance, you're supposed to cover me,
(10:57):
and they're saying, oh, but you didn't comply with the
terms of the policy, and we're prejudiced by you're not complying.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So I guess Johnny's agreement to let the guy leave
is really his biggest mistake. He should have just said,
I don't care if you want to leave or not leave.
We're calling a cop and we're getting a police report
because this is important. And even though the guy didn't
look like he had injuries, there was a bumper. You know,
the bumper was two thousand dollars in damage. That impact
would lead you to believe that maybe it could have
been big enough to cause maybe a little neck issue
(11:24):
or something, who knows.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think at the scene it didn't look that bad
because two thousand dollars it doesn't have to be that
much to a one thousand dollars bumper repair these days.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Well, I was going to say, I think, you know,
the bigger issue rather than the police, because the other
driver clearly wasn't going to wait for an officer to arrive,
Johnny said, okay, well, then let me take a picture
of the damage. Let me take a picture of your
driver's license, your insurance and then went home and called
insure his insurance company and told them what happened.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
See, if Johnny had called his insurance company, we wouldn't
have this case in front of us today.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Oh really, so let's go around the room. I believe
Johnny's stuck.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I think he's stuck as well. Unfortunately, agreed.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
I believe he's good. The car accident never happened.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
What say you an, You know you're still going to try, right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah. The issue is is the insurance company. Is Johnny's
insurance company prejudiced by him not notifying his insurance company timely.
So it's not as open and shut as we've got
language and a policy that says you have to timely
notify us. The law still is. They would need to
show that Johnny maliciously his insurance company is somehow prejudiced
(12:31):
by the fact that he didn't get a hold of them.
At least that's the argument that we're going to make.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Okay, so let me stop you real quick, explain what
you mean by prejudice.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Prejudice. Okay, his insurance company says, you didn't notify us,
so we're not to pay. And we turn around and say, well,
wait a second, tell us how you are harmed by
Johnny not letting you know. The facts are, the guy
had these medical bills, medical records, ten thousand dollars was
paid out. What could you have done, as Johnny's insurance
(12:57):
company differently if you had the medical records and medical bills,
you know they're The argument is they wouldn't have been
able to do anything different. I mean, they're just trying
to get off the hook by using that policy language.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
But the issue is how were they How is his
insurance company harmed? You know, they're the fifth thing. They
would come in and say, well, if we knew, we
could have defended Johnny and maybe not paid out ten
thousand dollars, If we knew, we could have defended Johnny
and not paid out two thousand. But in this case,
Johnny's clearly at fault. So you got to pay at
least two grand for the bumper, And then the guy's
got medical records and medical bills that caused his own
(13:32):
insurance company to pay it. You as Johnny's insurance company.
How are you going to not end up paying that
money if Johnny had notified you?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Right? So in other word, argument In other words, the
time doesn't really change the situation.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It makes it much more difficult, it's so much more difficult.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
But it doesn't exonerate them of their responsibility.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Johnny still has a shot at this. Wow shot it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Okay, well that's better news than what we thought.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But you know the problem is if somebody out there
gets in this situation where you don't think the police
are going to get called, then you're in an accident,
you should still notify your insurance company so you don't
get in this problem here where they're going to say
more time they notified in and then maybe some court
down the road is going to say, you know, we're
going to stick to that policy language and we're not
going to care whether the insurance company's prejudice or not.
(14:16):
They got policy language that says they don't have to
pay it, so they don't have to pay it. So,
you know, I don't know where it's going to end up,
but we're going to make the argument for Johnny that
the insurance company, his own company, has to show they
were somehow prejudiced by not getting timely noticed.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Is there any downside? And by downside I mean a
rate increase for Johnny. Let's say he notifies his insurance
company involved in an accident I re are ended this
person and they never make a claim.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Then there shouldn't be. They never make a claim, the
police never come out.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
Then even though you did what you're supposed to do
by notify your insurance company, but then there's no rate hike, right.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
There shouldn't be because your insurance company is not.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Paying anything because there's no claim.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Well, they're not paying anything and you're not getting a ticket,
so there shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
We definitely want an update on this case so people
out there getting an accent. If somebody says, hey, look,
I'm in a hurry, I'm going to exchange this information,
what would you say. Would you say, I don't care
if you're in a hurry or not, We're going to cop,
or even if he leaves, call a cop, or what
I mean? What would you do?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Seriously, if you have an injury, you need to call
the police. If you don't have an injury and it's
one hundred percent your fault, you still need to notify
your insurance company. Yeah, even if the other guy says, hey,
I'm on my way, don't worry about it, because two
days later he may decide that, yeah I am hurt.
Yeah I'm going to go to the doctor. He starts
going to the doctor. They start running MRIs. It shows
(15:37):
he's got dotage and oh boy, yeah, just that sentence
was twelve.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Grand yep, very nice. So the car accident did happen?
If you're joining, did happen?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I mean, you know, in illegal we have a legal
phrase called the tipsy Coachman's rule. That's when an appeals
court decides that the lower court did something right but
for the wrong reason. So they uphold what the lower
court did because they did it right, said the wrong thing.
So what Ross did today is the tipsy coach Wow. Ye,
(16:10):
the wrong reason but the right result.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Wow. What an interesting case. Good job today, really super interesting.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Get up, good laugh for Glenn, and don't forget to
have your uninsured motors coverage. Like back to you said
he got it because he hear you talk about it
all the time. Glenn, what are you giving up for
Halloween this year?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh, you'll have to come by and see what you
know what, I don't give out, I'll bring in for you.
Guys are very good.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
You should ball out and give out to buy chocolate.
That's what you should do, straight up ball out to
buy chocolate for everybody.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Only if Jimmy does the same.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Glenn, how good one. You know they all have it.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I haven't been doing I haven't been doing the biscuity
because I'm trying to. I'm not doing I heard. Yeah,
you guys, you know that's all right. We have want
to suffer fall out. We have to suffer part of
the fall.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's Clawsman Law k L A U S M A
in law dot com offices right there in Winner Park
four oh seven nine one seven seventeen eighteen car crash.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Called Clausman can seine you buddy? You gotta man all right?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Four O seven nine one six one four one fresh
keyword now
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