I've got a couple cases pending that deal with uninsured motorist claims. In #1, the accident was in 2001, and the original lawyer never notified the client's insurer about the potential claim. Client was rear-ended by defendant. Defendant says he was hit by unidentified vehicle, and driven into client. Client says that's bunk.
But even though your client says it's bunk, you should notify the client's carrier of the potential claim. I will do so, but the carrier is somewhat likely to say "too late". And they'd probably win that. If a jury decides that defendant is telling the truth, client will be left with nothing. This is why it's important to hire a lawyer who knows what he's doing (and sometimes that's not me).
I have a new case that's somewhat similar. Client was bumped by unidentified vehicle that drove off. Client got pushed into another vehicle, then spun out. A minute later, client was broadsided by defendant. Once I heard these facts from client, I notified the client's carrier of the potential uninsured claim. Odds are we'll get enough from defendant that it won't matter, but you have to cover your bases.
A while back I had an interesting uninsured case. Like the others, it was a "hit and run", except in this case there was no hit - no contact between the vehicles. Under NY law, you need actual contact between the vehicles for the coverage to apply. I suppose I could have gotten the client to lie and say there was contact, but my license is worth more than that. We actually pushed that case because the insurer denied coverage for the wrong reason. I thought we had a shot because of that but we got shot down by the trial judge. Filed an appeal, but finally my wife persuaded me that we were not going to win.
I argued that the denial lacked a "high degree of specificity", as required by General Accident v. Cirucci, 46 NY2d 862, 864 (1979). The insurer relied on Prudential v. Hobson, 67 NY2d 19 (1986), and Killakey, 78 NY2d 325 (1991), and that won the argument.
I also tried to argue that there was enough contact. The unknown vehicle sprayed gravel on client's car as it went by. I argued this was enough under Great Northern Ins. Co. v. Ballinger, 303 AD2d 503, 504 (2d Dept. 2003). In the end, I was probably overzealous on that case. But sometimes when you push that hard it gets you somewhere. It was worth a shot.
