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Car accident, what to do?

S

SportSC4

Golden Member
Hey all, unsure what to do here...
So in early November, my fiancee and I were involved in a car accident. We were sitting on a highway exit (traffic was backed up on the exit). Car in front of us was stopped, we were stopped, car behind us was stopped (decent amount of space between each car). Some douche hits the shit out of the car behind us, they hit us, and in turn we hit the car in front of us. Damage to my fiancee's car doesn't appear too bad (Saturns have pretty resilient bumpers) aside from a small gas leak (it's starting to get bad - we plan on having to pay out of pocket for this) and the front and rear bumpers needing a repaint (maybe cracked?). About $8-900 worths of work - probably more if and when they start looking at it more closely than just the surface.

So we find out today, that the SOB was driving a company car and wasn't authorized to do so. The company's insurance isn't going to pay. The guy didn't have insurance and got insurance the day of or after the accident and they won't pay. >grrrrr<

So what can we do? Her insurance can pay it and go after the guy but that means we're out 500 for our deductible. We received a letter from someone else involved in the accident who seems to have lawyer-ed up - should we see about getting involved with their lawyers also? Suggestions?
 
Call your insurance company, explain what happened, tell them the at fault party's insurance company is giving you the run around and that you need them to deal with it for you or else you're going to file a claim with them - they will take it from there. You pay these people, they are there to help you and by helping you they prevent having to pay out anything. Win win.
 
Call the company and ask for the police report of them reporting the car stolen and also a letter showing that person has been fired.

If not then ask them to send payment.

But easist thing to do is let your insurance handle it. You should get the $500 back. If not then once the case is closed go to small claims court against the person and company. Let the courts decide who pays. But i am guessing the compnay will.
 
Getting a lawyer would cost more than it's worth. At $170 per hour, money goes pretty quickly. It's your insurance company's job to handle it, so let them do their job.
 
lxskllr said:
Getting a lawyer would cost more than it's worth. At $170 per hour, money goes pretty quickly. It's your insurance company's job to handle it, so let them do their job.
Click to expand...

You have a lawyer already. You pay him every 6 months. Let your insurance company deal with this and get your car back to where it was before this bonehead entered your life.
 
SportSC4 said:
So we find out today, that the SOB was driving a company car and wasn't authorized to do so. The company's insurance isn't going to pay. The guy didn't have insurance and got insurance the day of or after the accident and they won't pay. >grrrrr<
Click to expand...

I would call an attorney and my insurance company. I would let the attorney deal with them, your insurance should owe nothing. The attorney will deal with the company and get your stuff taken care of.
 
lxskllr said:
Getting a lawyer would cost more than it's worth. At $170 per hour, money goes pretty quickly. It's your insurance company's job to handle it, so let them do their job.
Click to expand...

A lawyer sees this and they could surely get his gf some money out of it all. I would notify both and see what they say. Lawyers for car accidents usually don't charge an initial fee and dealing with car accident attorneys, they want 1/3 of the total, not just an hourly fee.
 
lxskllr said:
Getting a lawyer would cost more than it's worth. At $170 per hour, money goes pretty quickly. It's your insurance company's job to handle it, so let them do their job.
Click to expand...

Maybe. There are a lot of impoverished lawyers out there willing to work on the cheap and also newbies who will take anything to gain experience (and work your case tenaciously). As a last resort, if your insurance company won't help you satisfactorily, see if you can find someone who will take your case on contingency. They might even be able to try to collect attorneys fees from the other side.
 
SportSC4 said:
So we find out today, that the SOB was driving a company car and wasn't authorized to do so. The company's insurance isn't going to pay.
Click to expand...

Bullshit. The company is liable for that car whether the guy was authorized or not to drive it. Even if there insurance refuses to pay the company should. Sounds like they are trying to skate on it.
 
First off, this sort of case is generally a contingent fee case for most attorneys (assuming they will take it). If you're not familiar, the attorney will not take a fee unless they recover $ in which case they receive a &#37; (usually 33% but it can vary depending on the sort of case) plus any costs (filing fees or any out of pocket expenses).

For $1,000 or less its probably going to be hard to even find an attorney to take it. As was pointed out above, you should be contacting your insurance company and having them deal with the insurance company of the "company vehicle" as well as with the attorney involved. Yes, you may get stuck paying the deductible. Getting your own attorney seems a bit much at this point, particularly based on $500-$1,000 in damage...ya it sucks to get stuck paying it yourself, but the alternative isn't exactly likely to put you in a better position.

For what it's worth, call a few attorneys who handle negligence/personal injury/car accidents to get an idea of what exactly hiring them would entail. (Also, my post is not to be construed as legal advice, and if you want or need legal advice you'd have to contact an attorney.)
 
my uninsured motorist deductible is lower than my regular deductible.


edit: don't call a lawyer, call your insurance company.

<--- lawyer
 
x-alki said:
Bullshit. The company is liable for that car whether the guy was authorized or not to drive it. Even if there insurance refuses to pay the company should. Sounds like they are trying to skate on it.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Just mention the word lawsuit and I bet the company will settle...at least if they have half a brain they will because they're going to lose.
 
If your car really has less than $1000 of damage and you weren't injured, a lawyer will be a waste of money.

Your insurance company should be able to get money out of the company that owned the car; if they do, you should get your deductible back. They may not bother since it's a small amount of money.
 
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Thanks for all the help everyone!
I really like the idea of seeing if a report has been filed on a stolen car. I mean... if not, then they should be ok with covering damages. I totally agree that the company is trying to be deceitful and not be held liable for it.

Also, I really appreciate the legal direction that everyone offered. I really don't want to go through with hiring a lawyer avenue with something like this but I see no reason that we have to be out of 500$ for any amount of time for that person's incompetence. The person did a stupid thing and people trying to avoid their obligations.

My fiance has called her insurance company numerous times - easily more than a dozen times. They suck. It doesn't help that it took nearly 3 weeks just to get the police report (I'm currently looking into getting a copy of it for ourselves). The accident was in early November and since then, we've heard from her twice. They sent her to a really sketchy body shop who was trying to strong arm her into signing papers just to get the quote. The quote we did receive was from Geico (much nicer) but now they are saying they won't cover the person who caused all this. Needless to say, we're not very confident in my fiance's insurance company.
 
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I thought I'd put up a quick update.
Nothing much is going on.. yet. Insurance company sent a letter to us a few days ago.
Neat thing with Maryland though... you can look up people's traffic infractions. This guy is a real winner! In the last year and a half, he has been found guilty (6 different instances) of the following (lots of others that they dismissed but i won't list):
2 - no seat belt ticket
1 - failure to yield to right of way
4 - driving while on suspended license
1 - attempting to drive on highway w/o valid license
1 - driving without a license/authorization
1 - failure to appear for a tunnel infraction
A "NOLLE PROSEQUI" a week after the accident in the same area for driving while suspended license & for for failure to display car registration...

He has 2 cases pending a jury trial. Guy has no regard for other people's safety, I'm hoping that they put him in jail - as doubtful as that's going to be.
 
1. The business insurance carrier is liable for the driver. It doesn't matter if he wasn't "authorized" to drive the car. If he wasn't specifically excluded in the policy as a driver, had regular access to keys, and the vehicle wasn't reported stolen he had implied permission.
2. Your fiancee's insurance may suck, but taking 3 weeks to get the police report is likely the police's fault. Police and Highway Patrol regularly take that long or longer, especially in high-population cities.
3. If you go through her insurance and use a company-sponsored repair facility, they sometimes will waive the deductible.
4. I'm not going to tell you "Don't get an attorney". I am going to tell you "No attorney in their right mind will take your case on contingency." With no injuries and only property damage involved, there's no money to be made for them.
5. If you get the feeling that her insurance isn't pursuing recovery because it's <$1000, THEN get an attorney and you can sue for breach of contract.
 
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