Had accident during driving test and now instructor wants me to pay for damages

I would assume the laws are pretty much the same as those in the UK but you will have to make sure that they are though. When you're having driving lessons in your instructor's car, the vehicle is already insured for the learner and instructor and covers third party as well along with any damages to the car itself. An instructor will have comprehensive car insurance on the vehicle he's teaching you to drive in.

However many instructors will not want to claim through their insurance policy although it is already covered because they will lose their no claims discount and their premiums will go up at renewal. Therefore they will try to make the learner pay for any damages to their car. You should clearly refuse any attempt on his behalf to make you pay for the accident as you're paying for driving lessons which includes insurance cover. Irrespective of how many driving lessons you've had, if the instructor was willing to let you take his car for the driving test (or for lessons), it's his responsibility to get the car repaired.

And if he did not purchase adequate insurance, then that's his fault in the first place. A learner will make mistakes and may bump the car and that's a risk that instructors have to take and this is included in the prices for driving lessons.

Thanks for your quick response but I have now received papers to appear in small claims court! :( Do I need to get a lawyer?

Depends what they are suing you for? What do the court papers say?

"I had only taken five lessons prior to taking the road test." 5 lessons !!! Certainly suggests you were not quite ready for it if you misjudged and hit a wall. As a UK driving instructor my insurance would have covered this as I have Comprehensive cover. If I had only third party cover then all of my pupils would have been asked to sign an agreement that if they caused damage to the vehicle (eg. hitting a wall) then they accept the fact they have caused the damage and as such will pay repair costs. Did you sign anything to this effect? Were you made aware of the insurance cover prior to commencement of lessons? If not I doubt whether your instructor has a leg to stand on, but not sure if US law would stand the same as in the UK. Probably not with the culture to sue anyone for anything.

Ok so I have found out that I do not need a lawyer for small claims court but I could get one if I want one. The paper reads "Action to recover monies arising out of defendant crashing plaintiffs car during her road test". Nothing about me being a student of the driving school. The name on the papers is the driving instructors name not the name of the driving school. And I was not made aware that they were not fully insured nor did I sign anything saying so. I would have never done business with them if I knew they were not fully insured. And anonymous you are right about this country and lawsuits. I can't even believe I'm in this situation!

Well the laws are obviously different from those in the UK then. It might help if you try to find out whether you are supposed to take your own insurance when having driving lessons in NY.