Ah, that was the 'decent' thing for them to say. The amount of moral turpitude manifested by the Personal Inj. Atty's is second to none....
You might say it's so close to 'none' it's a tie.

 

Agree. There is no emotions between two insurance companies. Its just business. If one of the angry parties telephones with threats, it interferes with the process. And that process is not accomplished in a day.

 

Lessons learned:

a. Call the cops to the scene of an accident.
b. Contact the other parties insurance. Be patient.
c. If you reach a dead end, contact your insurance company. You pay premiums. Let them do the leg work.

 

Not sure if you are doing it already but I make it a practice to send agreements and demands in writing in additon to calling and/or emailing. Send him a registered or even better certified letter. Cost you a couple bucks and it may get you a response. I would not make any threats in the letter. State the truth and the obvious...you hit me on x date. i have called y times. your ins co has done z. Include all your contact info. copy his insurance and your insurance. talk to your insurance first cause you dont want to do anything that may jepordize your claim incase his ins company really does not pay.

 

This is definately a civil matter.
I don't know about your states motor vehicle law, but if you don't file a police report within 48 hrs of the accident, all the probable cause is evaporated. You can still take him to the court but you will be wasting your valuable money and time. Just let your insurance company do all the work just like other members are saying.
If he doesn't response, DMV will revoke his license + misdemenor charge on his ***.

 

it doesn't matter what he claims. he rearended you, and their were witnesses. you didn't need the cops either. if you got his insurance info you will be fine. there is no need for you to talk to him ever again.

 

Ok, this HAS to get cleared up. lgear080, will all due respect, you really couldn't be more wrong. I'm not sure if you are just a bitter person or were wronged by an insurance company, but you are way off base.

First off, the insurance companies don't want to **** off their client, so they do want you to be compensated. Sometimes, you pay your deductible until the facts are discovered and the evidence in the case supports your story. this allows you to mitigate your damage (something you are requried to do) and, unfortuately, is part of the proceess. While I think it sucks the guys is ducking you and his company, that is the nature of the beast.

lgear also said, "Need I remind everyone that each time you utilize your insurance, regardless of fault, you can face increased insurance costs." That statement is COMPLETELY false. Non-chargeable losses in CA do not effect your rates. If your rate goes up and it is based on a loss the company finds is not your fault, call the CA Dept of insurance at 1-800-927-HELP and file a complaint....but make sure that is the reason.

Allow me to give you some real info.

Your insurance company is repsonsible for paying for your damages that exceed your deductible. If the other party is not insured, or State Farm can't verify that he has coverage, they should pay you back or waive your deductible under the Uninsured Motorist Collision Deductible Waiver coverage...if you have it on your policy. If you don't, the Company really does not owe it to you.

The witnesses are in your favor and State Farm has taken your side (I assume since they talked to the witnesses), so all you really have to do is worry about your deductible and any out of pocket expenses for rental charges. By the way, in CA you are still entitled to "Loss of Use" and can be compensated regardless if you rented a car or not from the responsible parties Company.

The other parties insurance company has 10 days to send you written acknowledgement of your claim and 40 days to investigate the loss. After that time frame, if they don't have a conclusion they must notify you every thirty days as to why they have not made a determination regarding your claim. Finally, once they do determine liability and how they will address your claim, they must inform you in writing if they are going to deny any part of your claim and the exact reason(s) why. That letter also has to include the CA Dept of Insurance contact information. If they don't do any of this, they are in violation of the California Unfair Claims Practice Act.

We see this a lot in the insurance industry. People at fault avoid everyone and think it will just go away. What happens is we have to keep trying to get him to verify the story. If they don't, we have to file for "decletory relief" with the courts saying that we can't verify the loss facts with our own client and can't properly defend them since they won't cooperate. If the court ok's this, we are then legally not responsible for his accident, we cancel their policy for failure to cooperate, refund their money and they become an uninsured motorist....triggering your Uninsured Motorist coverage. But that process takes months.

As you have found out, contacting a lawyer is pointless. Unless you pay them up front to go after the other party, there is no money in it for them. Funny how they don't want to fight for you when you really need it...but would love to when you have some misfortune that they can make money on.

You have a couple options:
1) Contact the other parties insurance company and keep asking them about status. Be nice as pissing them off does nothing. It sounds like they are getting the brush off from their guy.
2) Consider a small claims action. However, if you do, you must notify State Farm as you may spoil their subrogation rights. Besides, they may already have a suit filed and you would have done all that work for nothing when you could just be an added plaintiff on theirs.
3) Call your agent and ask for his/her help. That is part of what you pay for. They are the "specialist" in your corner.
4) If you can't get any help from your adjuster/claims rep or any explainations/help from your agent, get a new Agent & insurance company.

Just to qualify my statements, I was an adjuster for 10 years with a major carrier and am now a licensed insurance agent managing my own agency for 9 years. If you need more help, let me know and I will do what I can to help another Z guy.

PS. Oh, and all the talk of having them write something about fault at the scene is a waste of time. All the person has to do is say they recant the statement as it was made under duress and that you forced them to write it down. They complied because you demanded and to avoid an arguement or physical confrontation. The rule of excitable utterences does not apply to that kind of evidence.

 

subscribing for updates

 

wow ppl are still posting in my thread. well since the last time i posted this, everything worked out with all the insurance hassle and running around. Definitely an experience i would not want to go through again. I called the guy who rear ended directly and spoke with him in a calm, mature manner. I assured him that i was not suing him for money that i did not feel i was owed, and that i just wanted my car fixed. He appreciated the fact that I was straight foward and ended up calling his insurance company the next day and admitted liability .

My Z since then has been at the body shop completed and ready to roll..

BUT Fooshe i have a question.

My Z has been completed for the past week, basically just sitting at the bodyshop. I dropped by the other day to pick it up and they said they could not release it to me because they have not recieved final payment from the insurance company yet. Something about faxing the bill over to the other parties estimator and making sure they agree with the bill?? I mean i signed all the necessary paper work for all the supplemental money weeks in advance, why would a bodyshop start work on my Z if they haven't recieved full payment?

My question is, can they hold my Z as collateral? I mean the agreement i signed says that upon completion i pay the $500(provided by my ins.) and i get the car. What does my Z have to do with the them getting final payment? My understanding is that it's between the insurance co and the bodyshop, how does this affect me not being able to have my Z?

I mean it sounds logical that this is normal practice, but again i don't see what keeping my Z has to do with anything. I'm not paying for the work, i dont' owe them money, that's the insurance co's problem.

 

Yes. The shop will release the car once they are paid.

 

You dont need a lawyer. Have your insurance fix your car and let them worry about recovering the $$$ from his insurance company, thats their job.

 

The short answer is yes, in most cases they can depending on the authorization for repair that you signed. The agreement you signed usually says that you will pay your deductible, but it should also state that upon completion, the full payment is due from the insurance company and the car won't be released until such time. READ THE PAPERWORK YOU SIGNED! If it does not contain that information, kindly point that out to the shop and ask them to confirm payment by the insurance company with them directly. If they still don't respond and you are sure the paperwork says nothing else other thant he deductible wording, I would call the buerau of automotive repair and file a complaint. I would also put my request in writing. Most shops, at least the good ones, don't hold your car hostage if the insurance company says they are sending the payment. That is why they will start work on the promise that they will be paid...not to mention the fact that if they don't, they can lien sale your car.

Let's clear something up/...who is pysically paying the damages to the shop? Is it your company or the other parties? If it's yours, now is the time to call you claims adjuster and, shall we say, express your diappointment in the claims handling and advise them that if you are without transportation due to their delay that you will rent a car and expect them to pick up the bill.

Also, if the shop is one that you were referred to by your company, their is an implied warranty for their work and their delays. Lean on the adjuster to get the car released or the payment there ASAP.

In your last paragraph you said "I mean it sounds logical that this is normal practice, but again i don't see what keeping my Z has to do with anything. I'm not paying for the work, i dont' owe them money, that's the insurance co's problem." Let me shed a little light on this. This is your car and only you can "authorize" repairs. When you do, you are doing this with the understanding that you are ultimately responsible for the cost of repairs. That means that if the payment is not made for any reason, it is not the shop's responsibility to chase the money...that's your job. They are only contracted to repair the car and expect payment once the car is done. They are keeping your Z until they get payment because if they don't, they will attach a "mechanic's lien" to the car or "lien sale" the car to collect what they are owed. Again, if this is one of your insurance companies direct repair facilities, then it's time to get a new insurance company.

Even the fact that this kind of thing is going on and your adjuster is not in communication with you about it would make me start shopping companies. That kind of claims handling is not acceptible. Don't get me wrong, adjusters are on the phone all day and busier than anyone realizes. I adjusted for many years and can tell you this with first hand knowledge...most adjusters want to handle your claim, make you whole, keep you happy and move on to the next file. However, they do tend to think that the public does know how the system works and forget that while they do it everyday, most people don't. With pending work loads of 100 open accident files or more per adjuster, there are just not enough hours in the day for them to do their job. That being said, I would not let anyone rest on that. If they can't handle it, get another job.

If you have any other questions, or anyone else does, feel free to ask. I believe that your agent should be a source of information and assistence. So if yours isn't, perhaps we should talk. I insure a number of guys on the fourm for both their regular cars, some homes and a quite a few collector/specialty cars that really don't belong on a regular insurance policy and need some special help due to their modified status. Ask yourself this, are all your mods covered by your policy if something happens to your car? If you don't know the answer, perhaps we need to talk.