family member threatening to sue me over insurance money
car accident attorney Florida Aug 25, 2026
location: florida so a year or two ago i got rear ended at a stop light and the damage was pretty bad. i got the dudes insurance info. a cop showed up, gave the guy a ticket, i got the police report stating he was at fault and that was that. my car got towed to a collision place and the price of the damages on the police report FAR exceeded what my car was worth at the time. my car was worth around $5000. and the damages was $8000+. so i had family members telling me to get a lawyer and sue the guy who had hit me, saying “you’re going to get back like $70,000. this will help all of us!!”. that rubbed me the wrong way but i got a lawyer regardless. i went to physical therapy and got my PIP money which was around $5000. after that i found out that the reason they couldn’t sue the guy or his insurance was because his insurance had some kind of loophole that said their client is not at fault unless a cop PHYSICALLY WITNESSED THE ACCIDENT and was there. i can list the name of the insurance company, the reviews all technically had the same issue i did. so i was going to call the whole situation a total loss simply and get another cheap vehicle because fixing my car would’ve made no sense. then i was informed that my family members went ahead and decided to go to the collision place and FIX MY CAR (in my name, no one elses) without discussing with me at all. i signed off on nothing. i was completely in shock and mortified. and what made it worse was that they told me they did it on their credit cards. and that i was now supposed to pay them back using what PIP money i had left since i did not get “$70,000” like they anticipated i would. so fast forward to a couple months later, im getting threats that they’re going to take me to court with the “receipts” and that it won’t look good for me. especially because i still have my car. so now im overwhelmed and very stressed out. is there any legal grounds to which they can actually sue me? or would it just be a bad idea for them?
