Should You Sue for an Accident on a Friend or Neighbors Property?

Ultimately, we let clients decide these things, but our cases are we’re never going after people personally. We are looking to go after insurance proceeds. So, for example, if it’s a trampoline case, lots of trampolines, lots of kids here in Utah, and so if your son or daughter is at a neighbor’s house and they fall off a trampoline and break their arm, there is a potential claim there against that homeowner if they weren’t properly supervising. A lot of people would look at a case like that and say I don’t want to do anything, it’s my neighbor. We have no problem with that. But they need to understand that we’re not going after their neighbor personally; it’s their homeowner’s insurance policy, and if you have tens of thousands in medical bills to cover, what’s right? You know and people need to decide that for themselves. If you have a neighbor that’s reasonable, that understands maybe they should have done something different, those are great cases because you know you have the defendant acting on your behalf, and you’re not suing them unless you file a lawsuit. And again, we control that. We don’t have to file a lawsuit. Most of the time they settle without the need to ever go to court. The answer is that it’s up to you and the client on whether they want to sue someone. We rarely will ever sue because we can settle those kinds of cases pretty easily, especially when your neighbor or friend is on your side.