We decided to report it to insurance because the other party wanted us to just write her a check for her damages. This is when I knew we were in trouble.
Brian got in a car accident a couple of years ago and the insurance company refused to pay when they totaled out his car and the accident had a police report indicating the accident was not his fault. We lucked out, Brian worked for a personal injury attorney who helped us out for free.
This time we are not so lucky. The insurance company recorded my statement and headed out to look at my car when the other party called to report injury. REALLY!?!
So we had to schedule a time to come in to have the car looked at, then they had to look at the other party's car, take pictures of the scene and determine who's fault it was. In the state of Colorado, if an accident is in the parking lot, they don't necessarily determine who's fault it was but they give a percentage of fault to each driver in the accident. The preliminary outcome was that it was 100% her fault, but because she was claiming it was our fault and she was claiming her children were injured, the adjuster predicted it would be 10% our fault, 90% her fault.

I know all the jokes about personal injury attorney's and being ambulance chaser but really insurance companies are just out for themselves and unless you threaten legal action nothing gets done.
50/50 will please the other insurance company and being what this accident was (basically nothing!) the insurance company knows that the medical bills will be minimal, our damages are way below our deductible, so they get to do minimal work, pay a couple buck to make much more money by jacking up our insurance rate.
If we would have gotten a police report, then fault would have been determined by the police station (which is located right next door to the complex, by the way), but even if we called the police, which we didn't, they would not have come to fill out a Police report because it was in a parking lot. So there was nothing more we could have done.
I have to get my thoughts together and then our insurance company will hear from me. I am usually pretty successful at getting bills reversed or explaining my issues, I even had a caterer send me apologetic flowers once - but I'm not feeling very confident about this phone call, because although they are a service agency and they do have competition, we have no choice - we have to have car insurance.
I just have to remind myself "Don't let the Man get you Down".
~ Nicole
4 comments:
Don't give up. My little brother got into a fender bender. 6 weeks later, the other people called and said the lady had a heart attack and it was the accident's fault (they were in traffic going 10 mph). They fought it with the insurance co and it went all the way to court. The judge found in my bro's favor, and they got $ to fix their car and a chiropractor's visit, not the $50K+ they were asking for... If you didn't do anything wrong, then don't pay for it!!!
Total bummer! Good luck!
The more I read abt insurance companies the more I see a need for change, Europe does not have these problems why do we?
Yep, I know how you feel. Did I ever tell you that I got into a fender bender and the guy died in surgery two years later (he had more than 20 since leaving the NFL a few decades earlier) so the family decided two years after he died to sue me for wrongful death? Oh, here is the best part, one of the plaintiffs is a football coach in a Rocky Mountain state that makes more than a million dollars a year. What can I say, people suck.
Post a Comment