An accident victim can only come after your personal assets if they have a court judgment in their favor. This means they will need to sue you and win, at which point they become a “judgment creditor” in the legal lingo. The judgment is for a sum of money the jury or judge decides on.
If you have the cash, you can pay the court judgment. The victim might also agree to a payment plan where you pay a certain amount regularly until the debt is paid off. You would need to discuss this with the judgment creditor.
Nevada Revised Statute § 21.080 allows someone with a court judgment to enforce it by asking a sheriff to execute on “all goods, chattel, money and other property.” That is a very broad right to execute on your property. The sheriff can then sell these assets at auction to raise money. After deducting for certain expenses related to the auction, the sheriff gives the judgment creditor the rest of the proceeds. However, the law also exempts a laundry list of assets from execution—which we will talk about more below.
Possibly losing personal assets is the direct consequence of harming someone negligently or intentionally. There are laws against texting while driving and other dangerous behavior. If you violate one of these laws, you must compensate victims by paying money damages.