I was involved in a fender bender in Illinois last October. At the time my vehicle was not insured. As a resident of Wisconsin I was require...

Question

I was involved in a fender bender in Illinois last October. At the time my vehicle was not insured. As a resident of Wisconsin I was required to show up in court and neither the other party, nor the officer showed, and my case was dismissed. I got a letter from a claims company stating that I owe $969.23 for damages. But since the case was thrown out, how can they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was my fault. Am I still required to pay?

Answer

You appear to be confusing your traffic citation case with the civil accident damage reimbursement claim which is apparently being threatened by the insurance company of the opposing vehicle. At least in WI, these two matters would go through different court systems separately. Different outcomes in each of these cases are a fairly common occurrence and is allowed by law. Proof in civil damage cases does not have to be "beyond a reasonable doubt," but rather only by a preponderance of the evidence, at least in WI. In the majority of civil court cases, no court appearance is ever required by either you or the opposing insurance company, if you default by failing to file a timely answer to their complaint in court. If you are serious about fighting this claim, you need to immediately retain an experienced IL civil litigation attorney. The fact that both of these claims involve the same events often leads to confusion in such matters, and, just to add to the confusion there are occasionally areas where one can affect the other. Default judgments against either side, however, are not one of them. Rather, when certain issues are fully litigated in a trial with sworn testimony, findings in one case can occasionally have a preclusive effect in determining issues in the other, but this is rare. The other possibility is that in criminal prosecutions, judges can order restitution, which might have some similarities to the insurer's reimbursement claim. Please be aware that my responses to you in the public web forum do not make me your attorney and that I am not representing you or taking any action on your case. These answers are intended for public educational use only and may contain lawyer advertising materials. Regardless of this, however, you are still welcome to contact me during business hours at my in Racine if you still have questions.

Answer

I assume that the court appearance you had related to your getting a citation(s) in Illinois for either not having insurance and/or doing something that violated an ordinance or statute, resulting in the vehicle collision. It sounds as though the case involving the ticket(s) was dismissed because the governmental agency that gave your the citation(s) failed to appear, therefore, they could not prove their case against you. You have not described how the accident happened, therefore, it is difficult to know if you were at fault or not. It would appear that the insurance company for the other vehicle may have paid for property damage or other items for that vehicle and/or driver, and now they are making a claim against you for reimbursement. If there is a reasonable belief that you were at fault, you may wish to contact them and attempt to work out payment arrangements with them. If you do not, they may choose to sue you for the damages, which could result in more costs to you, the potential of your having to retain an attorney to represent you, and the potential of a judgment being rendered against you for the damages. The other insurance company will have to prove that you were at fault in the collision, but the burden of proof would not be "beyond a reasonable doubt," as that burden relates to proof in a criminal case.

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