In some situations if a Hawaii personal injury plaintiff makes a demand, which is within the insurance policy limits and the personal injury defendant's motor vehicle insurance company won't agree to settle within the policy limits, the defendant may file a lawsuit against his own car insurance company if the plaintiff's verdict exceeded the policy limits. Basically, the motor vehicle insurance policy limits may have been deemed to be waived and the defendant may seek to have the entire personal injury judgment paid by the car insurance company. In such a situation, the
car accident defendant may assign his claims against his own car insurance company to the personal injury plaintiff in exchange for a release of personal liability.
In most cases of car accidents, the car insurance company has a subrogation claim which may be brought as a negligence claim against the tortfeasor. The negligent party is usually represented by a liability insurer, so the subrogation claim is usually between two Honolulu, Hawaii car insurance companies. However, there is special law regarding no-fault cases. When someone in Hawaii has already received no-fault benefits and receives compensation for tort liability which duplicates the no-fault benefits received, the no-fault insurance company may recover 50% of the no-fault benefits that it paid. The burden of proof is on the
car insurance company to prove that the tort recovery is in fact a duplication of the no-fault benefits recovery.