Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with insurance and accident

Can auto claim be reopened?

elizfield — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:48:45 -0800

After I settled an auto injury claim I found out the adjuster mislead me on a number of issues. Had I known that I would have obtained an attorney. Can settled injury claims get reopened (Adjuster says no)?

Fender bender responsibility?

cosmac — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:41:38 -0800

Who is at fault in the following scenario (USA, Colorado)? "Person A" in a pickup stopped in the left lane of a 4 lane road waiting for a car in front to turn left. "Person B" in a car stopped behind "person A". "A" and "B" get tired of waiting and seeing no traffic in the right hand lane pull into it to pass the stopped car. "B" hits the right rear quarter panel of "A"'s truck. "A"'s truck is large, "B"'s car is small. "A" asserts (s)he never saw "B". Note I'm interested in both the legal and ethical answer!

How to verify that I'm not getting ripped off by gas station technician quote

ilovehistory — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:45:46 -0800

I drive away with the gas nozzle still in my car. Dumb, I know. But, now the attendent says I owe him $692 to have it put back in by a technician. How can I validate this amount? It's a sketchy bodega, so I don't just trust a receipt. Don't want to get police involved as the attendant was nice enough to agree not to contact my insurance. However, I want to make sure that I pay the correct and fair amount.

Is there somewhere online I can verify this? What kind of technician would i call for quotes.

Please help as I have to pay by noon tomorrow and he will say he already hired the technician by then.

take a payoff?

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:50:33 -0800

I got hit by a car while I was cycling, and reported it to the police. Now the other party is offering to "settle it personally", leaving insurance companies and police out. Is this legal, and is it advisable? Here are the details:
I was hit by a car that was cutting across my lane to turn left. I was not badly injured, but had quite a number of big bruises and lots of soreness. My bike was slightly scratched up and the chain got knocked off and tangled in the gears.

At the scene the guy who hit me gave me his first name and phone number. I took out my mobile and snapped some photos of him, and his number plate. We parted ways without anything else, but I told him that I was going to report the accident. The reason I decided to report the accident was because
- it doesn't seem fair that just because I'm on a bike, he gets to drive away without bringing insurance/police into it the way one normally would with a collision with a car
- I feel he should get points on his license or whatever happens to people who cause accidents - it was a really stupid, unsafe maneuver he pulled, and it was only sheer luck that I wasn't really badly injured or worse.
- I thought I might get some small amount of money to get some general repairs on my bike.

Now, after I filed the report (which is simply a collision report), the wife of the man who hit me has phoned to ask if we can "settle it ourselves". I'm not too sure what they have in mind, but I assume it's some amount of money.

I have to admit I'm tempted to go for it, but I'm not sure. First, is this legal? And if I were to take them up, how would I go about canceling a police report - is that even possible?
Finally, how much do they have to gain by avoiding a police report, and by extension how much bargaining power would that give me? I wouldn't be tempted to let him "get away with is" legally for £50, but £500 on the other hand..

Rental Car Accident filter

spacefire — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:43:10 -0800

Hertz fender bender, do I need to file police report, and am I covered? I backing up out of my parents driveway, I hit my mom's car with the rear of my Hertz rental car. Dents and scratches , but no other damage. I have Liability Insurance supplement but no Loss Damage Waiver as that should be taken care of by Visa since I rented using my Visa card. Should we file a police report?

Another question, related: The liability protection states, quote:
Within the limits stated in this subparagraph, hertz will indemnify, hold harmless....which by definition EXCLUDES ANY OF YOUR OR ANY AUTHORIZED OPERATOR'S FAMILY MEMBERS...RESIDING WITH YOU OR THEM..."
I don't live with my parents, I was just visiting, will the liability thing cover the damage to my mother's car?

Can I / should I accept reimbursement for a car repair I didn't do?

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:40:56 -0800

Is it legal to accept $500 from a car insurance company, reimbursing me for a repair I'm not going to make? If it's legal, should I? Recently my car was very lightly rear-ended. Both I and the other driver are insured. There were no injuries and my car has no visible damage -- I took it to my mechanic, who I trust, who confirmed that there was no damage from the collision. The other driver's insurance company sent a photographer to take photos of my car to check its condition. The photographer reported a small nick in my bumper, and based on this, the other driver's insurance sent me a check for $500 for a new bumper. The nick is almost invisible (my wife can see it, I haven't managed to) and we have no interest in getting a new bumper. My wife thinks it might be OK to just cash the check, on the grounds that the eventual resale value of the car will be lower because it's been involved in an accident, however small. I'm concerned that it might actually be against the law to cash a check for replacing a bumper that I didn't actually replace. I see a few options:
A. Cash the check, pocket the money.
B. Cash the check, replace the undamaged bumper. (Seems like a waste of the world's resources, but maybe I should think of it as economic stimulus?)
C. Don't cash the check, keep it, and if I need to replace the bumper for some other reason in the next year (the life of the check,) cash it.
D. Cut up the check.

We don't want to do anything illegal. So: which of these four options is legal? And of the legal ones, which are ethically OK?
(Anonymous in case the right answer is "A is probably legal but I wouldn't do it if my real name were attached to the general practice in a public place.")

Must I report minor fender bender to insurance company?

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:39:28 -0800

In a minor fender bender. Do I have to report the accident to my insurance company? In rainy weather I slid into a car stopped at a light. It was basically a tap. Her car had a small scrape on her bumper. My car had the same, just a little paint missing.

The policeman at the scene wrote up the accident report and gave me the accident number to give my insurance agency.

With only a little paint missing, the damage is below my deductible, so if/when I get it fixed it will be on my own. Do I still have to report this to my insurance agency? Sorry for the question; first accident.

Paying out of pocket and preventing future involvement of car insurance co.

ecsh — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:57:29 -0800

If I pay out of pocket for repairs to another driver's car, is there a form I can ask him to sign to prevent later involvement of insurance companies? As I was backing slowly out of a parking space this afternoon, I bumped into another car. The other car was driving through the parking lot and not yet in a space.

The collision was so gentle that I didn't actually feel it, and the only damage to my car was a small crack in the paint on the corner of the rear bumper. The other car was a two-door model, and the only damage that we could see was a dent in the panel just behind the driver's door. The dent was about a foot across and looks like something that might easily pop out, but then there's the issue of repainting.

The other car belongs to the driver's brother; it is unquestionably still drivable and both the driver and owner live nearby. I admitted fault, but I pointed out that it was raining and that the other driver had not turned on his headlights, which certainly contributed to my failure to see his car. I'm in PA, where headlights are required when wipers are in use, and it was raining hard enough for that.

Given the headlight issue, I asked that the driver do me the favor of communicating to the owner that I am interested in paying out of pocket and not getting insurance companies involved. We exchanged contact and insurance information amicably, and the driver mentioned it was possible that his brother would decide to let the whole thing go (not that I'm pinning my hopes on this).

1. My guess is that repairs will run $200-400, and in this range I would rather pay out of pocket than report it to my insurance company and deal with increased premiums for years. Are these estimates reasonable?
2. I've never before been in a car accident where parties other than myself and a deer were involved. Is settling w/o involving insurance in any way illegal? If not, is there some standard form I could ask the owner to sign, when I hand over the check, to establish that the issue has been settled and prevent him from seeking money from my insurance company?
3. Would the driver need to sign the form mentioned above? I don't think there are any medical issues, but we did not discuss that explicitly.
4. If costs spiral out of control somehow, and I decide that I would rather have my insurance company cover the cost, how much of a delay in reporting the accident is acceptable?
5. The other car is 15 years old and worth $800-1200 according to KBB. It seems possible that the owner might prefer to have the cost of the repair in cash and either not repair the car or repair it when convenient (since the damage isn't a safety issue). Does offering to write him a check directly, either for the value of an estimate or for a mutually agreed upon amount, change any legal/insurance status?

Please don't tell me that I shouldn't have admitted fault. I think that it mostly was my fault, and paying a few hundred dollars out of pocket is no hardship. I would just rather avoid the insurance hike.

How to manage two consecutive car accidents?

fermion — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:03:28 -0800

My parked car got hit by a truck. Then, before I could get it fixed, it got hit by another truck. How do I handle two claims at once? The first accident was a couple of months ago--a truck hit my parked car and ripped my rear bumper halfway off. The wheels of paperwork have been grinding slowly, partly just because I've been busy, so I'm still working things out with that insurance company and hadn't fixed the damage yet. This morning, a garbage truck hit my (again, parked--I haven't driven it at all for a few months) car and did some damage to the door and mirrors, as well as taking my bumper the rest of the way off.

What do I tell the garbage truck's insurance company about this most recent incident? I don't want to get compensated for the same damages twice, but I also don't want to give them an excuse to claim all the damage was pre-existing. I know that the appropriate actions in situations like this can be counter-intuitive, so I'm hoping you folks can give me some advice.

Potentially relevant info: I'm in Washington State, and my insurance is liability-only (it's an old car) so I'm dealing with the other insurance companies directly rather than through my own insurer.

How to get insurance company pay for my car accident?

coolnik — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:57:38 -0800

Car accident insurance filter: Insurance company refuses to provide for rental car before sending me the money. What to do? Details:
My car got rear-ended 14 days ago. No fault of mine--this is confirmed by the police report. I took the damaged car to the body shop. 10 days after the accident I got the rental car, and have been using it for last five days.

For the first time in last 14 days, today I heard from the other party's insurance company. The car is deemed total loss. I have been offered two choices, one of which lets me keep the car, while if I go with the other I will have to say goodbye to my car. Now that I have been "offered" compensation, the insurance company wants to cut-off my rental car within 2 days. The insurance company agreed to pay $30 per day for loss of use for the duration I did not have rental car, but that was only upon my strong insistence.

Here is my problem: How can insurance company cut-off my rental car without sending me the money, or in other words, how am I supposed to buy a new car without having any money from the insurance company, and till then why shouldn't the insurance company pay for my rental car?

More, I have been asked to tell my choice for the compensation within one day, or else (I have been told by the insurance company) the body shop will start charging me for car parking fees and so will be rental car company.

This all seems to me an attempt to twist my arm and make me agree to what they offer. MeFi, please help.

Should I report an accident to my insurance company even if there was no harm done?

tipthepizzaguy — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:03:40 -0800

A little kid ran in front of my car in a parking lot and I hit him. He was not hurt and there was no damage to my car. The boy's mother apologized and told me everything was okay. We did not exchange any information. After I drove away she called the police and filed a bogus report. What to do? Thankfully there was a witness and his report to the police matches mine. I don't believe I'll be in any legal trouble. The officer I spoke to said the woman and her story were both "a little off."

What I am worried about is my insurance. Should I report this incident to my insurance company? Should I file a claim even though there was no damage? Is there anything else I need to do to cover my ass in case she sues or files her own insurance claim?

I broke my leg! Should I pursue compensation?

ImproviseOrDie — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:43:52 -0800

Personal injury filter: I broke my leg very badly--clean break of both tibia and fibula--while visiting my brother's apartment building in Brooklyn NY. I required surgery and a 5-day hospital stay. I will require months of PT and further ortho visits. I don't know yet if I'll lose any time from work beyond the week I was in the hospital, because my job is understanding and will let me work from home for at least a while. I cannot drive for at least a month, so I'm dependent on the kindness of my friends to bring me things, and as I live in a 3-story walkup (in Baltimore), I won't be going anywhere for a while. My question is about whether I should try to have the apartment building owner(s) contribute money toward what I expect to be quite a high amount. I'm not looking for damages--just for whatever my insurance won't cover. More details: I know that YANAL and YANML. I'm a 39 year-old woman, if that matters. My brother lives in a building where each apartment is owned; I'm not sure if they're condos or a co-op building. I fell on the stairs in the common area. I can't say for sure if I tripped or what, but I was not being reckless. All I know is that I was carrying my suitcase (carry-on size), landed wrong on my right foot, tried to use my left leg to stabilize and avoid falling, but my left leg simply snapped in two. (Yes, ouch. Worst pain of my life.)

In the hospital I had to wait 2 days with my bones unset while the swelling lessened enough to have surgery, during which they inserted titanium rods and pins into my leg. I had quick PT to learn how to negotiate with crutches and my cast, but once the cast comes off and I get a removable boot--probably in a few weeks--I'm going to need several weeks of PT to learn how to bear weight on that leg again, and how to drive with the boot, and I don't know what else. I may start with a walker with the boot and progress to a cane. I'm told I should expect to feel pain for about 6 months.

I'm currently unable to stand up for more than about 15 minutes because of swelling inside the cast and pain, so in addition to all the other drudgery outlined above, my daily activities are severely limited even while I'm trapped at home. This affects things like cooking, hygiene, pet care, and whatnot.

My brother, who rents in the building where the accident occurred, is encouraging me to pursue compensation from the building owner(s). (He's planning on moving soon, but this would be his advice even if he were staying.) Several nurses in the hospital also encouraged me in this same direction, and so has my mom.

I'm normally one of those who's apt to say "Shit happens. Get over it. It was an accident. Don't sue." But I'm worried about incurring medical debt I cannot pay for, and my worries are compounded by a looming threat of layoffs at my financial services company.

Once upon a time I was an ass and had very bad credit, and I've worked long and hard to become more responsible and to restore my good name and a decent credit score, and I'm very worried about a downward spiral with collections agencies and huge credit card bills if I were to get a bill for, say, more than 5k. Which I'm quite sure I will. On top of all this, I'm getting a divorce, so I'm trying to minimize any and all bills as I start my new life and save enough to buy another house.

Provided that my health insurance company, who I just started with on 9/1, allows all the charges on the claims, I'll still owe 20% of the entire bill. I figure that with some denied charges, I'll probably owe closer to 30-35% of the total.

If you're still reading after all that, thank you! My question is not necessarily "Should I sue?" but rather "Should I pursue compensation for the costs I'm sure I won't be able to afford?"

Car accident/insurance advice

rbellon — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:59:00 -0800

What should I do if I'm not sure someone's after the fact claim about a car accident is actually related to the accident? I recently rear-ended another vehicle in stop and go traffic during rush hour at less than 5mph. We pulled over, and looked at the cars. Both agreed no damage, but wanting to be a good doobie, I gave her my contact info in case something internal came up. I was foolish in that I didn't get her info, or even jot down her car's make/model or license plate number. I have a perfect driving record, and had never been involved in something like this, so it kind of took me by surprise and I wasn't sure what to do in the moment. No insurance information was exchanged and no police report was filed.

Several days later, she e-mailed to say that she had found damage, that she was away for the weekend but could send pics when she returned, and could I please send her my insurance information. I replied requesting that she send the photos, since we had both concluded there was no surface damage.

She subsequently sent two very dark photos of just the damaged area of a vehicle. I do recall that the other vehicle was a large SUV, and it's discernible in the photos that they depict a Ford Explorer. Here's the thing - the rear fender is knocked loose in the photos, and at a downward angle. I drive a small compact car that has absolutely no signs of any damage.

I showed the pics to a friend who works with cars and his take was that there was no way a collision at less than 5mph could have caused the damage in the photos, especially without sustaining serious damage to the front of my car. He also noted that based on the respective heights of the vehicles, her fender should have gone up and not down as the picture shows. Finally, he commented that the only way he could imagine the accident I described "causing" the damage was if it was already quite rusted (and there is some rust visible in the photos).

I found a Ford Explorer in a parking lot earlier this evening to just kind of compare heights, and what he says seems to be true. He suggested being back in touch with her and basically explaining the above, then seeing if she still wants to pursue.

What's the smartest thing for me to do at this point? Be back in touch with her? Call my insurance company? I'm kicking myself because I a) want to be responsible and take care of any damage that I caused, but b) just had a funny feeling when I got her e-mail and saw the pictures, which has only deepened since communicating with my friend. I don't want to be taken advantage of.

proper order of operations involving a minor accident.

swngnmonk — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:06:18 -0800

URGENT: Proper handling (e.g. legal/insurance) of the situation - my motorcycle was knocked over when parked, there are witnesses. Fun parking in NYC. I came out this morning to move my motorcycle (parking regulations), noticed fluid underneath. After moving it, I realized the fluid was because the radiator had been knocked off it's mount, totally smashed, and a number of secondary parts had been as well. Thank god for frame sliders, I think the tank is ok.

While looking at it, a woman came up to me, her husband witnessed the event, knows the car (someone else from the neighborhood). And they hit it *hard* - Hard enough to knock it over on the right, on an incline.

I want the bike fixed ASAP, but it's going to take days before I can straighten things out with the husband, find this guy, etc.

How do I handle things from a claim perspective? Should I just get the bike fixed now, and then go back with the invoice?

Thank you.

How do you negotiate with insurance companies after an accident?

FlamingBore — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:31:04 -0800

How do we navigate auto insurance negotiation post accident? My partner was involved in a major auto accident this past week. We're now trying to figure out all the insurance craziness. Looks like all the other AskMeFi questions are dealing with someone else's insurance company and we're only dealing with hers. Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

On Monday she was driven off the road on I-91 near Holyoke MA. The other driver did not stop and no one has come forward with his/her license plate details, etc. There were witnesses and the police report indicates she was not at fault. She is lucky to be alive and is thanking her lucky stars that her 15 year old Audi took the bullet for her.

The car is totaled (we're pretty sure, as are all parties who have seen it thus far) and we're just waiting to hear from the insurance company. How can she best navigate this situation to get the most from her insurance company to replace the car?

The car was a 93 Audi 90s with about 108k miles on it. She was paying for full coverage. She maintained it well and had recently put in about $1600 worth of work into it.

We've been told that she can negotiate with the insurance company. We've also been told that they are likely to offer her considerably less than the NADA book value, but she should push back on them saying that's the guide to go by.

Is there an insurance adjuster in the house? Any tips, suggestions or insider information to make this as non-excruciating as possible?

Should we repair unclaimed damage before an inspection?

Anonymous — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:18:22 -0800

Ontario car insurance. My wife and I have insurance through PC financial. Over the last year, our cars have been damaged, but we haven't filed a claim. Now, they've requested an inspection of our cars. Is this just to ensure they don't pay for preexisting damage in the event of future claims, or can we expect them to get mad/raise rates for this? My wife's car was damaged when I was a blind idiot in a parking lot. I did about $800-1000 damage to my wife's car which we haven't gotten fixed, and about $900 in damage to a nice lady's car. We paid her cash (the quote to repair the damage came much lower than we were anticipating), and had her sign an agreement/receipt for the cash and that she had no further claims against us. 5+ months later and we haven't heard further from her. Neither party reported this to the police. This is a newer, but low sticker price car.

Someone tried unsuccessfully to break into my car. In the process of this, both door handles were popped partially out of the car. I had an estimate of $300 to fix. It's a mid-age low sticker price car. We had reported this to the police. We were told that there was a series of successful auto thefts in our area that night, to consider ourselves lucky that they failed with my car, and that they were unlikely to catch the culprits. This occured 6-12 months ago.

We have just enough money in savings to get these fixed if we need to. But we're alright with the unsightliness and would rather have the money for future emergencies that don't involve cosmetic damage to possessions.

Should we get the cars fixed ASAP and then bring them in for the inspection? Should we have notified the insurance company of damage to the cars that we weren't making claims for and then bring the cars in? Should we just bring the cars in and let them make notes and then go our merry way? Should we start budgeting for a rate increase?

Rear-ended by a nun

any major dude — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:45:21 -0800

My wife was rear-ended today by a couple of nuns while stopped at a light. She didn't call the police to the scene and now she is feeling some stiffness in her neck. What should we do now? I'm not very concerned about the scratches to our bumper but I am a little worried about the health of my wife and child. The must have hit her car with some force because my wife said their front end was all pushed in. Something tells me that if either of them end up with whiplash in a week or two I'm going to have very little recourse without a police report. Do I need to file a police report or should I just report it to my insurance company even though there is very little damage to my car? What if the nuns file their own police report and change the story? What if they weren't even nuns at all just women who dress that way out of habit? ;) Basically I'm just looking to cover us financially just in case this ends up being more than what I hope it ends up being, just an unfortunate fender bender.

How can I get enough money to replace my car?

Alison — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:19:12 -0800

How do I get a fair settlement for my totaled car in Pennsylvania? The insurance adjuster insists that I am not owed the replacement value of my car and refuses to budge. My neighbor hit a patch of black ice a few weeks ago and struck my unoccupied, parked 1996 Mazda Protege. A few days ago the insurance adjuster (Traveler's insurance) came back with a settlement of about $3300 based on the NADA book value.

I looked around and the Kelley Blue Book value for my car starts at about $3500 and goes up to $4300, with my low mileage car (~49,000 miles) in the upper range. Even cars with twice the miles are retailing at $4000. I've been collecting sales ads for replacement cars due to the good advice in this thread.

The adjuster refuses to budge and insists that I am only owed the NADA value of my car and nothing more in the State of Pennsylvania, even if a replacement vehicle would cost much more. They won't even consider retail prices for equivalent vehicles and were very short with me when I brought up the option.

My insurance (Geico) has been absolutely no help and has left me to take care of this on my own. I'm considering retaining legal counsel, but I don't know how to sort through all of the ambulance chasers. I'm not even sure if it will be worth it for less than $1000 difference.

I've contacted the state insurance bureau, but it will take them a few days to answer my question.

So, how does this work for Pennsylvania? Am I not entitled to the cost of a replacement car? Is the insurance adjuster even telling me the truth about PA law? They're taking the rental car back on Friday so I'd like to have a course of action planned by then.

Sorry baby, I had to crash that Prius.

hulahulagirl — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:36:11 -0800

Do I have to pay $1000+ the insurance co. won't cover? CarAccidentFilter: Last Thanksgiving we rented a Prius from Dollar Rent A Car to drive from Portland, OR to Idaho. In Walla Walla, WA someone pulled out in front of us on the highway and we crashed. The other driver (18 yr old girl) was cited and I was not. The car was towed to a wrecking yard in Walla Walla (and we rented another car and finished the trip). Luckily no one was hurt.

The other party's insurance co. (Safeco) paid the balance of the cost of the car minus what Dollar RAC received after they sold the Prius as salvage. However, they refuse to pay about $1000 in towing charges because they feel that Dollar was unreasonable in requiring the car to be returned to PDX for assessment after the accident. Safeco told me that Dollar could have had it towed to any number of closer yards where a "field agent" could deem the car a total loss. Dollar tells me that they don't have field agents and they needed to tow the car to PDX because that's where it came from/that's where their office is. Dollar wants me to pay the $1000+ that Safeco won't pay although it sounds like Dollar is correct in requiring the car to be returned to PDX and I think Safeco should be ponying up the rest of the cash. They've already paid over $11,000 and they're sticking me with $1000 in towing charges.

So, my question is, am I on the hook for this? I don't want to fight it too much and incur a bunch of atty fees and interest, but I really don't feel it's my responsibility. I know, YANAL, etc. (unless you are and that would be awesome).

Car accident. "I will write a cheque" turned into "Who are you?"

kmennie — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:35:59 -0800

Car accident in Sept. Swapped info; didn't call police. Now the guy who hit us has never heard of us. What can I reasonably expect? Back in September, I stood watching on a corner as an SUV clipped the Civic my husband was driving. Much of the side of the plastic (!) bumper got left in the street.

Information was swapped, cops weren't called. (That last part was not my idea...) Very long story about why we didn't get around to pursuing it until now -- part of it having to do with my holding our newborn daughter while I watched him get clipped -- but, anyway. I finally called the dude (who had liquor on his breath at the time) yesterday.

He was very nervous and bullshitty of tone and claimed to own a grey Cadillac, not an SUV. No idea who I was. Then went into some story about how he owns a company and maybe a car there... Well, could he call me back? Give him 24h. Yeah, right.

What, if anything, can I reasonably expect at this point? Estimate for the damage is about C$1,400. We're in Ottawa, Ontario.

Should we submit a claim for an accident between two cars we both own?

Ostara — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:39:17 -0800

I backed into my husband's car today with my SUV, and I think I caused about $3000 in damage. Are we better off submitting a claim to our insurance company, or handling this out of our own pocket? We have called our insurance company already and asked them this same question. They can't tell us how much our insurance will go up because "claims and underwriting are different departments."

We're taking the car to a body shop tomorrow for an official estimate. It is a 2006 Civic. The front bumper and front quarter panel are damaged, as well as the front headlight. It is possible that it may be even more than my guesstimate.

My car, a 2003 Santa Fe, is ok aside from a few scratches on the bumper.

I know I'm an idiot and I feel so bad. Suggestions on how to get back into my husband's good graces are also welcome.

Tiny Accident, They're Claiming Injuries, How Screwed Am I?

jimmyjimjim — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:38:50 -0800

Tiny Accident, They're Claiming Injuries, How Screwed Am I? Last week, I had an accident. I was waiting to turn right behind a van, also waiting to turn. He went, then jammed on brakes. I braked, but couldn't avoid hitting him. Minimal damage for him, none for me. It was maybe at 5-10 mph. The guys in the van - who spoke no English - kept pointing accusingly at their necks and backs...while walking around freely, comfortably, and without any evident pain (and, no, they didn't need an ambulance). I, stupidly, did not photograph the back of their van, and the police report does not go into any description of how minimal he damage was to their van. I have on my to-do list purchase of an umbrella policy, but currently have $100K in insurance. So....if these guys do a number on their van to blow up the size of the accident, and manage to produce doctor's reports testifying to their utter paralysis, is there a chance this could go over $100K? I'm guessing they'll wind up settling, and that's usually $10-20K, right? I need to note that if there was even the remotest chance they were legitimately injured, I'd be really upset about it. But, no, these guys are just opportunists. I'm expecting a hugely overblown medical report.

This isn't the kind og turkey I had in mind.

4ster — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:01:11 -0800

A guy driving his son's car backs into my wife's van, while my wife's dad is driving it. The guy admits fault, then changes his mind and his story. My in-laws never thought to file a police report or get contact information from the witness. Now we think that the vehicle that hit us may be uninsured. It all happened on private property. Help. This all takes place in Virginia. My inlaws are in the minivan, bringing it home to us from the mechanic. There is an accident on the interstate, so they pull off the interstate onto a back road, where in a vacant lot, they see two guys, each in a pickup, talking out the window.

One of the pickup guys leaves and my father-in-law pulls into the spot where he was (alongside the other pickup) to ask the guy in the other pickup for directions. While he is doing this, the first guy decides he wants to tell his budy something else, so he throws it into reverse and backs into our van, despite the fact that my father-in-law is laying on the horn.

He breaks the hood and the grill, and is falling all over himself apologizing and admitting fault. Yet, my in-laws don't file a police report.

They call the guy's insurance, who calls the guy, who admits fault. Then, about five minutes later, he decides its his word against ours, so he calls and files a separate claim, saying my father-in-law hit him. His insurance company has told us that he did this.

Now, he refuses to give us any information on how to contact his son, the vehicle's owner, and he says he is really the victim here. To make matters worse, his insurance company is now saying that his son's vehicle isn't on the policy.

It looks like my only option is to go through my insurance company, but I really don't want to do this, if I can avoid it.

So, MeFites, please put on your IANAL outfits and help me out. Thanks as always.

If an insurance adjustor gives an estimate twice what's expected, should I worry?

SeizeTheDay — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:48:47 -0800

What happens if an insurance adjustor gives you an estimate that's twice as large as the original body shop estimate you got before the adjustor saw the damage? A friend was in an accident. This friend called the insurance company, but the company wasn't able to get an adjustor to look at the car until a few days after the accident. In the meantime, this friend got a couple of body shop estimates, just to get an idea of the damage. Anyway, body shop came in at $1500, insurance adjustor came in at $3000. My friend's car is basically brand new and is only in the second year of making payments.

Is there anything weird going on? Should my friend worry about the rather large bill (that my friend won't pay anyway because my friend has a deductible) in the future? Should my friend be worried about having a rather large claim being filed on the car when trying to sell it, should that be necessary?

Is it worth trying to lower the actual amount fixed (i.e. some things aren't mechanically necessary and very minor cosmetic damage) so that in the future a potential buyer of the car doesn't get scared away by such a large fix?

More importantly, since my friend isn't actually worried, am I worried over nothing?

Legalities after Bicycle Accident?

suedehead — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:41:50 -0800

I got hit by a car on a bicycle while carrying a laptop. Bicycle & laptop are busted, but thankfully I'm not. What do I do now, legally speaking? I was riding my bike uptown on an avenue on a green light. A livery cab coming uptown on the same avenue turned to his left, across the avenue, to enter a eastbound street. I saw him coming and tried to brake to avoid him; he was going pretty fast and didn't brake in time, and he hit me on my left, his front/right. I flipped over and landed on my back.

There were quite a few people around, who started calling the police and an ambulance. The police came and got the driver's license number, et cetera, and I went in the ambulance to the ER, where I got checked out and they told me that I'd probably be okay for now. Fortunately, I was wearing a helmet and a messenger bag, and so I don't have any harsh bruises or scrapes. My neck/head seem okay for now.

Problem is: My bike wheels are bent, a pedal is bent, the handlebars are bent sideways, et cetera. On top of that, I had my laptop in my messenger bag. The laptop's LCD screen is cracked, and my laptop won't boot up past the Apple login screen. I went to the police, they gave me an accident report, but told me that they couldn't include any information about any valuables I had in a police accident report.

All I want is to have my bike, my laptop, and any medical fees resulting from this to be covered. I do have medical insurance. I don't think that it was my fault - I was going slower than the cars, it was my green light, I have the right of way because he was turning left, and if the livery cab wasn't going so fast he would have been able to stop in time.

1) What should I do next?
2) How do I prove that the accident caused the damage to my laptop?
3) Should I just contact the driver's insurance company and try to settle it that way? Will they cover my medical fees/bike/laptop?
4) Should I try to find a lawyer specializing in these cases? (I'm in NYC.)
5) The police report doesn't have any info about witnesses - should I try to find one?
6) Does the fact that the car was a livery cab change anything/make anything difficult?

I'm just very confused and frazzled - nobody I've talked to has been able to answer these questions. Thanks!