Originally Posted by
bluefoxicy
You are going to see this guy again when he comes back for the other $108k. $10k liability insurance doesn't mean $10k liability limit; it means the insurance will cover that. The guy has been found liable, his insurance is off the hook as they paid as their policy dictates; however, he can now be sued for his remaining liability.
I didn't get into the details of the settlement, because all I was doing was the child support part. But usually when a plaintiff settles with the insurance company, the settlement releases the defendant from further liability, so the defendant probably could not be sued. Also, from talking with the lawyer about the crash, the cyclist appeared to be largely at fault - he was riding against traffic and there were conflicting statements about whether the cyclist swerved into the car (which, we all know, cyclists do all the time). I suspect the insurance company threw in the the low policy limits to get the release, without worrying much about liability. So in the end the driver is off the hook, the lawyer will get his third (probably), the hospital will get screwed (by collecting a few thousand of its $118,000 bill), and the state will not recover the welfare money it's paying to support the child.