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Originally Posted by Law Boy
Another thing ... your $10 million in umbrella coverage is smart thinking and responsible. You have a lot to protect.
Now let me tell you the quickest way for you to lose that coverage.
The other driver is a moron as you say and he denies everything, curses you and gets in your face. You respond in kind. It escalates and he comes at you with a wrench or whatever. You shoot him.
Now the witnesses tell the responding officers that it was a mutual verbal free for all until that guy attacked you and you shot him. To the police, that is a mutual "fighting words" scenario where you were equally at fault for escalating the situation. Actually, you were more responsible because you knew you had a gun and that you could over power the other guy and may have baited him so you could shoot him.
So, the D.A. gets a copy of the incident report and filed a criminal complaint againt you. YOu may plea bargain it down to a misdemeanor, or a lesser felony, maybe not.
But here is the really fun part ... you have just lost ALL OF YOUR PRIMARY AND EXCESS COVERAGE. How, well, in every state in this nation, it is againt public policy to allow someone to insure against intentional misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance (the latter where a duty to act is owed). The criminal case establishes that your act was intentional. So, when you tender your defense to your primary ins. co., they will deny it citing an intentional act. Now, you have no excess coverage because it only kicks in once the dollar-one coverage has been exhausted.
Now you will sue them for bad faith -- that case will be up on appeal six years later. Meanwhile, the wrongful death or damages case from the guy you shot will be waiting in the wings, along with another nine cases for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress from the other people who witnessed you shot this guy to the ground with their kids also watching from the backseats of their minivans. You will likely lose everything you have paying hourly for the case against your ins. co. so the others will just be gravy by the time you get around to them. Business, gone. Wife, gone. Life Over!
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Wow! You predicted exactly what is going to happen simply based the fact that I am going to "confront" some guy about hitting my car. You even predicted what a witness would say and that the other guy would produce a weapon. Lets break this up in parts. I get out of the car and the guy gets in my face. I call the cops. He produces a deadly weapon, I shoot him.
If he is the one who produced a weapon, I am entitled to defend myself. You are assuming I am going to raise bloody hell at a guy for hitting my car. If the guy gets stupid, I just callthe cops. If he attacks me, I sure as hell will defend myself. As for my umbrella coverage, I'm not sure it covers anything not directly related to the accident. As for all of the other crap you threw in there...
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along with another nine cases for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress from the other people who witnessed you shot this guy to the ground with their kids also watching from the backseats of their minivans.
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, I'm ot sure where you get this stuff. I guess you have to defend the police department from all those types of suits as well everytime an officer shoots a bad guy.
I guess since you are an attorney (or at least claim to be) you have all the answers. That is why our legal system is so F$%&(* UP. Besides, with the pathetic juries I have served with, I find it hard to believe that anyone gets convicted of anything anymore. :barf:
If I were a judge, I'd tell you to stick with the facts and not your cockamamie theories. (Speculation) Last time I checked, that is NOT what our legal system was based on. Besides, the fact that you defend police departments means you are most probably NOT a criminal attorney (although the term is often considered redundant
).
I truley hope that you don't ever find yourself in a situation like the one posted. Many people are much less rational than you give them credit for. I would encourage you to respond with the appropriate force if the guy is an idiot and decides to attack you.