Your liability when your vehicle is at the dealer

[Kicker]

 

[gpbst3]

No one actually read this did they??

The family sued the Jeep owner who in turn sued the Jeep dealership for indemnification which shifts the burden to the dealership and off of the owner. The dealership will seek appeals but it won’t win. The article is just sensationalizing it.

It’s just how you play the laws in Michigan, the Jeep owner isn’t being screwed.

Its not that simple. How much money does the Jeep owner have to spend to defend himself and shift the burden back to the dealership? Call an attorney and ask how much it would cost for a negligent death defense. I bet it could easily be 25k plus. Who has that kind of money sitting around for a BS lawsuit. Would your auto insurance be involved?

Until the laws are changed anyone in Michigan could be in the same situation (although very unlikely).

 

[Darksteel165]

"He starts the engine, removes the clutch, and then a terrible thing happened - the car lunched and killed my client,
I love how they explain how to drive a manual, what else would you expect to happen when you remove the clutch? Nothing?

Next thing we will see is "person puts head under water and a terrible thing happens - my client couldn't breath!"
Or maybe "He puts his hand on the saw blade, then turns on the saw, and then a terrible thing happened - the saw cut my client's hand in half.

 

[Brutal_HO]

In Mother Russia, clutch remove you.

Some people did something.

 

[Eighty]

This is a tragic accident, but I’m surprised the lawsuit wasn’t thrown out. Sounds like this Michigan law is the same as Florida, where the sole remedy for a worksite injury is Workers Compensation. This is a good thing in general, as it prevents frivolous lawsuits from turning the state into a California type of environment. The key phrase is” sole remedy”. So the third-party-over lawsuit shouldn’t have been allowed.

One of my workers was killed a few years ago in Florida, and that’s how it worked. Workers Comp paid out a death benefit, and that was it. Well, that wasn’t”it”, but that’s the only money that changed hands to the family.

 

[Shots]

The family sued the Jeep owner who in turn sued the Jeep dealership for indemnification which shifts the burden to the dealership and off of the owner. The dealership will seek appeals but it won’t win.....

...... the Jeep owner isn’t being screwed.

The Jeep owner is being screwed. There should be absolutely zero involvement or concern on his/her end regarding any potential for liability. The fact that it's even on the table, regardless of how unlikely to end up on the their plate, is ridiculous. So yes, they're being screwed on the deal.

Its not that simple. How much money does the Jeep owner have to spend to defend himself and shift the burden back to the dealership? .....

Agreed, and not only this but the stress involved even if they don't have to pay for a defense. Even if it's extremely unlikely and the case is resolved before they ever have to hire representation, they still have this weighing on them.

It's clear a lot of people here haven't been sued for something frivolous before. I have, and it's extremely stressful. My case was clearly frivolous and I was assured that I had nothing to worry about. Even still, it weighed heavy on my mind until the case was thrown out. The problem is the attorneys will tell you you're in the clear, but they'll never actually say you're guaranteed safe, or that there's a zero percent change of you losing. They'll say things like "almost never" or "I haven't seen it" or things like that. The chances might be low, but never zero. That is stressful. And that's crap since the Jeep owner didn't have anything to do with it. Michigan law is stupid.

 

[jdmartin]

The Jeep owner is being screwed. There should be absolutely zero involvement or concern on his/her end regarding any potential for liability. The fact that it's even on the table, regardless of how unlikely to end up on the their plate, is ridiculous. So yes, they're being screwed on the deal.

Agreed, and not only this but the stress involved even if they don't have to pay for a defense. Even if it's extremely unlikely and the case is resolved before they ever have to hire representation, they still have this weighing on them.

It's clear a lot of people here haven't been sued for something frivolous before. I have, and it's extremely stressful. My case was clearly frivolous and I was assured that I had nothing to worry about. Even still, it weighed heavy on my mind until the case was thrown out. The problem is the attorneys will tell you you're in the clear, but they'll never actually say you're guaranteed safe, or that there's a zero percent change of you losing. They'll say things like "almost never" or "I haven't seen it" or things like that. The chances might be low, but never zero. That is stressful. And that's crap since the Jeep owner didn't have anything to do with it. Michigan law is stupid.

No doubt. I've also been sued before for something frivolous, and that was from an insurance company (State Farm) who obviously has deeper pockets than me. In the end I settled for less than $500 with no admission of wrongdoing, but that was only because I'm a practical person and paying them less than $500 versus paying my lawyer another grand was the only practical thing to do. In the meantime, until we settled, I had to deal with a lot of aggravation including appearing once in court and multiple meetings with my lawyer.