Is It Possible to Dispute a Claim by an Insurance Company?

[YellowYoshi]

Hello all,

About two months ago, I was involved in a very minor accident. As I was driving down a 6 lane street (three lanes each way, with a median), a truck carrying a trailer coming the opposite way turned left, cutting me off.

I was driving on the right lane, and the truck had been stopped for a while at the median. Suddenly, it decides to turn in front of me and another car right next to me in the center lane. I started honking and braking immediately; I braked so hard that my Traction Control warning came on, but I couldn't change lanes because the other car was right next to me. I ended up hitting the very back of her trailer dolly with the very corner of my car. No air bags were activated, no leaks, just the corner of my car was damaged and the eyeglasses storage thing in the "ceiling" of my car came off and cracked part of my dashboard.

Regrettably, I didn't call the cops because we weren't injured and the accident wasn't serious. We just exchanged insurance information. Immediately after, I called her insurance company, Progressive, and filed a claim.

Later that day, I received a call from a local Progressive representative and she recorded me telling her everything I just explained in this post. We made an appointment for her to appraise the damages to my car the following week. Unfortunately, due to factors beyond my control (a concerto rehearsal I was performing with a symphony) I was forced to cancel that appointment. I left the lady a voicemail explaining that to her, but she took days to get back to me. Regrettably, she would call when I was unable to answer, and although I would call her back within just a few hours, she would never answer, and would take days to return my call. Eventually, she called leaving a voicemail explaining that taking into consideration both sides of the story, as well as the damage done to the vehicles, she had concluded that her insurance client was not liable and they would not pay for any of the repairs. Which is complete and utter BS.

Especially the "damage done to the vehicles" part - she never even saw my car! She obviously kept on stalling.

I am at a loss at what to do. Somebody suggested I could sue the person directly at a civil court. Is there an easier course of action I can take?

Any suggestions are very appreciated.

I've been reading around the forums and googling a ton, but I haven't been able to find answers geared more towards my situation.


Thanks!
YellowYoshi

 

[VolAgent]

Did you file a claim with your insurance company? If so, they will try to resolve liability with the other company. It goes without saying that you should have called the police and filed a report.

Did you get the names of any witnesses? Right now, it is pretty much a he said/she said. The fact you hit the rear of the truck goes against you as it appears you were simply following too closely.

Basically you have two options.

1. File a claim with your company and let them handle it. Of course you still might be found at fault.
2. Take the other driver to court. Depending on the amount of damage, you might be eligible for small claims court. Really though, I wouldn't hold my breath on winning. You have no evidence.

 

[YellowYoshi]

Thanks for the help,

I wasn't following too closely; the truck was coming the OPPOSITE way and turned left in front of me, cutting me off. Does that make sense? Kind of like this:

X
|
|
\-------->
...........^
...........|
...........|
...........|
...........|
...........Y

Them being X and me being Y.

Unfortunately, no, there were no witnesses around. I'm sure nearby cars saw the accident, but none stopped :/

I did file a claim with my own company, Geico. They told me to call Progressive directly. However, because I have full coverage, they're willing to fix my car either way, but the deductible is $500 and I'd rather not have to pay that...

 

[VolAgent]

I didn't say you were following too closely, I said it would appear you were.

For the record, something similar happened to my wife. She was taking a left with a green turn arrow. Guy ran the red light and she braked to avoid a bad accident and scraped the side of his vehicle.

Cops came out, took statements and decided my wife was at fault. We told the insurance company we disputed that version of events. Paid the deductible and paid to get the violation dismissed. So far, not sure what is going to happen with the claims.

It sucks, but there were no witnesses. Sadly, when she went to see the lawyer for another family member, he told her she should have told him the cops failed to notice she had a passenger, our son. Maybe it would have turned out different then. Who knows.

I wish you the best, but you are probably stuck with the claim. File with your insurance company immediately. Hopefully you just have to pay your deductible.

 

[djs]

File the claim with YOUR insurance company. Progressive has nothing to lose by denying the claim but if they here from your insurance, they will probably rethink their assessment pretty quickly.

Volagent is correct, they assumed you rear-ended the other driver, missing the fact that it is opposite corners for the impact (based on what you described).

So, step 1 is to file a police report. Do it online and you do them yourself nowadays, unless someone is injured. In many areas, police won't come to minor fender benders unless there is a traffic problem, injury, or significant damage.

Step 2 is to file a claim with your company.

Dan

 

[xrac]

I have a friend who had a virtually identical situation. The Progressive insure person ran over him changing from the outside to inside lane to tr\urn. This driver was named as at fault in the police report. However, Progressive said they found a witness who would testify that he was at fault. This is a poor guy on a scooter with no insurance company to defend him and no money to go to small claims court. In my opinion Progressive uses this tactic as often as possible.

 

[Accelerated]

As others have said:
You need to file the claim with your carrier. It is sad that you will have to absorb the deductible, but sometimes that is the way it goes. Absent witnesses or a police report in which one of you was cited as at fault, it is really your only option.

The only other option that I can think of would be for you to canvas the intersection that the loss occurred at and determine if there is any surveillance footage that may have captured the incident. If you have video that shows that the incident occurred as you have described, it would go a long way toward helping you deal with the other driver's carrier.

 

[scagnt83]

A big delivery truck actually backed into my mom while sitting at a red light.
The cop just automatically started writing her a ticket until the truck driver admitted it was his fault.

It never looks good when the front of your car is in the backend of another.

 

[YellowYoshi]

Thanks for all your suggestions - I'll have to pay the deductible and fix it though my own insurance.

It's quite frustrating, but alas; at least now I know to call the police no matter what!

Thanks!

 

[Newby]

Thanks for the help,

I wasn't following too closely; the truck was coming the OPPOSITE way and turned left in front of me, cutting me off. Does that make sense? Kind of like this:

X
|
|
\-------->
...........^
...........|
...........|
...........|
...........|
...........Y

Them being X and me being Y.

Unfortunately, no, there were no witnesses around. I'm sure nearby cars saw the accident, but none stopped :/

I did file a claim with my own company, Geico. They told me to call Progressive directly. However, because I have full coverage, they're willing to fix my car either way, but the deductible is $500 and I'd rather not have to pay that...

Is no one but me completely impressed that this guy drew an accident diagram on his keyboard with dots and dashes and it's actually understandable?