US suit for foreign car crash

On May 18, 7:32 am, yrr...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have a question I wonder if anyone could answer. If a U.S. citizen
> were involved in an auto accident in another country in rented car, is
> there any way that a party from the other country could make any kind
> of personal injury claim against the U.S. citizen once
> they are back in the U.S.?

Sure there is.   You are always responsible for your own torts (wrongful or negligent acts), and can be sued for them where-ever you can be found even if the tort occurred someplace else.

When it's the other way around, if a foreign national injures someone in the US and then goes back home, the US victim has a harder time because of difficulty in getting personal service of process over the foreign defendant in that foreign country to haul him back into a US court for trial.  However, this is because most victims prefer to sue in the US, whose legal system is far more generous to injury victims than most other countries' legal systems are.   The US victim still has the option of gettting a lawyer in the responsible parties' country to sue them there, but usually won't do that because the potential return (smaller than in US) is not worth the cost and effort (relatively larger).

When the responsible party is a US citizen and goes back to the US after injuring someone overseas, however, the foreign victim has it much easier.   They can deal with a local lawyer in their home country, who will contact and work with a lawyer in the US, to sue the at-fault driver in the US.   The lawyers work on contingency fees, and the victim gets the benefit of the more plaintiff-friendly US courts and tort laws.

However, under many states' "choice of law" rules, the US court hearing the matter would apply the law of the place where the injury occurred to all substantive issues, including determination of liability, and the measure of damages.   So the advantage isn't as great as it may seem initially.

The US driver's US insurance will not protect him from the consequences of being sued for an overseas accident; US policies generally apply to occurrences within their "territorial limits of coverage" typically defined as the US and Canada.   So, if you're renting a car abroad, be sure the rental company provides LIABILITY insurance that will cover the risk of you injuring someone else while driving there, as well as collision coverage for damage to the rental car.

> I would think that there only option would
> be to seek damages
> from the rental car company. Is this correct?

Technically, no, it's not correct.   But practically, the rental company (and its insurer) are usually the victim's first point of contact and, if they are cooperative and reach a settlement, that may be all that is necessary.

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