TrollfaceDeux
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
- 19,577
- 3,743
Minor car accident - now with ambulance chasing law firm
- Thread starter Jovec
- Start date
-
Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
If the opposing lawyer contacts you, you should at least tell him what a terrible piece of shit human being he is, and that he should kill himself for the good of all humanity. Then tell him to contact your insurance company if he decides against the righteous path of self immolation
It's your civic duty to shame these people whenever possible.
It's your civic duty to shame these people whenever possible.
Void
BAU BAU
- 9,919
- 11,930
Eomer
Trakanon Raider
- 5,472
- 272
Up here the cops won't show up unless there is personal injury or significant property damage (ie: one or both vehicles cannot be driven away from the scene). You do need to file a police report yourself if the repairs to your vehicle are over $2,000, as body shops aren't supposed to repair your car without one.
But all that shit is kind of moot when it comes to soft tissue injuries. They can claim that they felt fine immediately after the accident, and that's perfectly legitimate even if they wake up the next day and can't move. 99% chance the person is faking it, but soft tissue stuff can be tricky. I got pretty bad whiplash from a ski crash two years ago, and to this day my neck still gives me some problems here and there. Nothing debilitating or even all that frequent, but it did sort of open my eyes a bit to how persistent that kind of shit can be.
Has anyone ever had an experience with a driver who's insured by the same company? Another State Farm customer hit my car, we both gave our versions of events, and State Farm made us pay our own deductibles even though the damage to our cars made no sense under the circumstances the other driver described. That political bullshit is just bad business.
Yeah I'm sure he's going to feel a ton of shame collecting his $1,000 check for an hour's worth of work. You may get him to call his entire profession into question!
My bet is they hit you both with at fault accidents as well on your driving records. If you go through your carrier you will always pay your deductible. If there is another company involved you can request that your carrier subrogate on your behalf and get the other company to pay it or part of it depending on details. When your company is the other company that gets muddy unless you have ZERO liability in the accident which is unlikely unless you were virtually parked.
When in an accident is usually best to go through the other person's insurance company. Unless they are complete fuck heads they generally want to keep you happy so you don't sue them. You also don't get into coding issues on your record because many insurance companies (your own) will code an accident as at fault if they pay anything. Some might forget when 6 months later after subrogation to change that and other less scrupulous carriers will give you an at fault so you can't shop with other carriers but won't charge you for it on their own end.
Lots of fucked up shit. They know most people aren't going to check their MVR reports and if your rate doesn't go up from the accident you likely won't shop either. If you do, you'll get higher rates for 3 or 5 years from competitors making their smallish increases seem like a bargain. Unless another agent tells you that you actually have an accident on there that is at fault and goes through the details you likely won't know either. Since most of the world shits out their work and does the least amount possible you're likely to never find out and just get higher quotes and think "oh i guess i better stay where I'm at"
- 3,500
- 3,222
Backing this up. Never, ever, ever go through your own insurance company if you can avoid it, if you are not at fault. Not only will you avoid paying a deductible/excess, but it will have a lessened or nil effect on your insurance premium, which, if you are in an accident, even if not your own fault, and make a claim, will increase, as people who have one claim are statistically likely to have more in the future.
At renewal time, depending on your insurer, you may see a premium hike regardless, even if you have a not at fault claim through another insurance company (assuming you tell them. By law you have to, but you can get away with not). I handled my grandfathers claim when his card was hit while parked by a third party. I made him go entirely through the other companys insurance, because I knew what I was doing, and had his car fixed within 2 weeks, and he suffered zero effect to his own policy, when I knew it would inflate the price of his insurance if he went through his company, as I worked for them, and knew their criteria. Got him a staff discount too!
Most states will only charge you for at fault accidents. The only one I know that does it differently is Florida, because they're a no fault state. If you get into an accident there, you file the claim against your own insurance regardless of who's at fault. There may be some states that do it, but I'm not aware of any others that surcharge you when you're not at fault.
Only 1 person can be considered at fault from an MVR perspective. The insurance can say both people are equally at fault 50/50 and each person has to pay their deductible, but the DMV won't consider it an at fault accident unless you're at least 51% at fault. Could be different in certain states, but that's how it is for most. So you shouldn't see your rate get impacted if the insurance company says you were equally at fault; you'll just be out a few hundred bucks on your deductible.
No fault is only for the first 10k of bodily injury benefits. 80% of medical 60% of loss wages. Nothing to do with if you are actually at fault or not or any points / charges against you. All it means is regardless of fault you will hit your company for the first 10k of bodily injury benefits. The other carrier still gets dinged the 20 and 40% assuming their guy is at fault.
Damage to property are paid entirely differently and have nothing to do with state no fault. You also can go through the other insurance company for the other portions of the policy the only part you go through your own carrier for is the first 10k in PIP or any uninsured motorist. The rest can be paid and done fully through the other carrier.
Insurance companies use far more than just the MVR report to look for ways to ding you on your insurance rate. CLUE is the biggest and you can even get dinged and lose safe driving credits for excessive or even just large comp claims. If your carrier pays on your behalf under collision more times than not I've seen it charged as at fault regardless of actual fault. The end result is for many companies they don't care about the circumstances of the loss, only that something was paid. We fought tooth and nail for months to get crap like this fixed or dealt with it when other companies like All State or State Farm did it and their client was shopping. Total PIA in the fix.
Regardless if you have an at fault or not, the key thing is credits. Many companies remove those credits for not only tickets or at fault accidents but for items like more than 1 windshield loss in 2 years or like I said in my post for collision claims paid. More or less if your company is paying and the state allows it, the company will ding you any way they can. Not all states are the same.
Regardless of points at the MVR, if you get into an accident it is almost always better to go through the other guys insurance until those limits are exhausted before using your own. Otherwise you run the risk of fucking up your CLUE report in the future and jeopardizing good rates. If nothing else you also don't have a deductible to pay and in general the other insurance company wants to get rid of your ass and get things closed before you decide your back hurts and you need to see a chiropractor for 5 years.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
- 46,799
- 99,970
OneofOne
Silver Baronet of the Realm
- 6,935
- 8,783
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
- 46,799
- 99,970
So its a credit report type thing. Glad more companies are making bank off my private information.
Jovec
?
- 812
- 385
Kirun
Buzzfeed Editor
- 19,490
- 15,851
- 26,498
- 40,632
Well yeah! I got dropped by my homeowners insurance for filing a claim. Been paying them fuckers for 10 years and I have one problem and they wave their middle fingers at me. We were gone for a week on a vacation and when we got back there was a small leak in our kitchen supply line that basically leaked under our pergo floor and destroyed it all. Waht to do? Call the insurance company, right?
We got a measly $4K for the settlement from the insurance company and then they dropped us right after that. Best of all is that I missed the letter. So i get a letter from my mortgage company saying that our mortgage rates are going up because they had to stick their own insurance on the place. which of course was like triple the price for 1/4 of the coverage. So I had to deal with all that fucking mess.
We got a measly $4K for the settlement from the insurance company and then they dropped us right after that. Best of all is that I missed the letter. So i get a letter from my mortgage company saying that our mortgage rates are going up because they had to stick their own insurance on the place. which of course was like triple the price for 1/4 of the coverage. So I had to deal with all that fucking mess.
- 1,841
- 452
^My cousins had the same thing happen, but with their roof. Had been paying into their home owner's insurance for well over 6 years when a bad storm damaged part of their roof. Insurance company barely paid to have it fixed, then told them to find someone else to cover them. It's a bunch of crap, but I have heard stories like this my whole life.