I understood from what she was saying that the 25,000 would be from the liability portion of her insurance....this is, in CA anyway, to cover all cost that you are liable for including car, property damages, medical payments that exceed the medical portion of your insurance....and while you insurance is there to financially protect your insterests they are not the ones being sued or they would be receiving the subpoena. Also, you can be sued even if you weren't driving your vehicle...generally all persons named on the registration and all persons named in the policy are sued. At least that is how it happened when my sister was a passenger in my mom's car....and my daughter and husband were passengers in my sister's car....two different accidents....two different Attorney's....both filed suit against the owner of the vehicle and all listed on the insurance...this meant that my sister filed suit against my mom (the accident was NOT her fault) and in my families case my H and D filed against my sister (who wasn't in the car but registered as an owner) and her husband (who was NOT at fault)....both attorney's explained that you start out suing basically everyone named on anything to do with the accident...then the judge (IF it ever gets that far, which ours didn't) will determine who is responsible for damages and who isn't...if the judgement exceeds the insured's policy amount a settlement is usually sought that is within the insured's policy amount...rarely does the insured get stuck with the excess unless it was really really bad, like someone was killed or left paralyzed! But again, it probably depends some what on which state you live in...I have worked for a several personal injury attorney's in CA and this is usually par for the course... I wouldn't sweat it...but make sure any attorney you get protects your personal property!
