Its kinda off topic, but you guys saw my old thread and gave lots of good advice, so I figured this is the best place for me to try. anyway, here goes....

If any of you remember, I was rear ended about 6 weeks ago. There is a thread on it here:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=136485
http://www.southfloridaracing.com/f...ead.php?t=23957

To bring u up to speed, here is how things played out:

I get hit (rear ended while at a stop light....stopped), police come and say I am not at fault and do a propper police report (duh). It was an old guy that hit me and he seems 1/2 out of it. he gets 2 citations. Me and girlfriend both go to ER.

I start insurance claims with both insurance co's and they both say everything is cool. Car is sent to Brinks autobody in Boca to get fixed and me and gf both get medical treatment, including MRIs, x-rays, therapy, chiro, etc and are still being treated.

The guy's insurance sends me a check to pay to get my car fixed. They tell me to get a rental an Enterprise for the time being and once liability is assumed to their driver (already done in the police report, needed to be faxed over), they will pay for the car. I am having the case handled by a law firm to help make sure I dont get screwed.

So now its 6 weeks later. My car should be finished this week and medical bills seems to be getting processed just fine. But I get a letter from my lawyer saying they are no longer representing me in the case and that the other driver was not insured.

Ok, wtf? why did the other drivers' insurance co pay for my car and tell me to get a rental if he is not covered? I gave them his policy # and drivers license # and licence place on the phone. So i call and find out that he is insured, but not in the car he was driving, so they are not paying jack and are going after my ins co to get the money they paid for my car to get fixed back. but im stuck /w the rental bill (about $2,000 now, and it already hit my creditcard).

So my questions:

1) Will my insurance co charge me a deductable for my car if his tries to get their money back from them, even tho the others guys screwed up and paid for it? Can they come back to me for any of it? Or would they have to get it off their driver who caused the accadent? Or just eat the cost.....

2) Dont the ins co's have to cover damages to OTHERS in accadents caused by their drivers regardless of the vehicle they are in? If he wasnt in his covered car, fine....dont pay for damages to his car. but he was at fault for damaging others property while operating a licensed vehicle. how is that not covered?

3) I dont have rental coverage on my policy, but should my ins co help me with this bill since I am not at fault? or should I be able to go after the guy who hit me for it?

4) What can I do to go directly after the person responsable for damages? Will I likely ever see anything even if it goes to small claims and I win? IE: If he is ordered to pay and doesnt, what happens? Keep in mind that I live in FL.

5) Are insurance cos required to carry errors and ommisions coverage for mistakes like this? I would have never gotten the rental if they didnt tell me they would be paying for it. If they said they would pay for it once liability is on their driver, dont they have to stand to that?

help!!!

 

get a lawyer =\

 

what kind?

 

Not that I have any idea what I'm talking about, but... Under FL law, is it the car or the operator that is covered by the policy? It seems to me that the policy of the car OWNER rather than the operator is the place to look. I know that if I loan my car to another operator, I make a point of showing them where all the paperwork is.

Either way, the only wat to get a reliable answer is to explain it all to a lawyer. Generally, first consult is free.

 

You're probably going to have to go after the person who hit you and sue him. Also, check with your own insurance company and see if you're insured against being hit by an uninsured driver. Many states require that.

 

Yeah, you'll end up having to take the guy to small claims court if you can't get him to pay up front....

 

Hmm..I was under the impression that the insurance company is insuring you and not the car itself, at least as far as medical payments and damage to other property is concerned. In other words, when you rent a car, you have to provide proof you have insurance. That rental car isn't on your policy but you yourself are covered by your own policy for certain things. Another example: if you borrow a friend's car and wreck it, they will go after your insurance company first and then go after your friend's for whatever your's doesn't cover. At least, this is how I understand things to work. I could be wrong.

You need to call your own insurance company and ask them what they can do for you and what the other company is required to do under law. This is what you pay them for.

If the guy's insurance company really doesn't have to pay you, then I would next go after the insurance for the specific vehicle that was involved, if it was insured. As long as the vehicle wasn't stolen, the car's insurance may be what you need to go after. Then, as a last resort, you need to sue the guy. If he's old enough to be collecting social security, you better believe you will see some money, each and every month until his bill is paid off. Regardless, you need to take him to small claims court if you can't get your money any other way. Make the guy pay for his mistake. Good luck!

 

My dads truck was totalled a couple years ago, my grandma rolled it over. His insurance company had to cover it, not hers. His insurance went thru the roof but is now back to normal. So the ins. co of the owner of the vehicle is responsible, thats what I think, but don't quote me on it.

 

I don't know how it is in FL, but in WI, unless the Insurance Co specifies otherwise, they insure a certain driver in a certain vehicle. Me in my RA, for example. Not my brother in my RA, nor me in my brother's car.

You're probably going to have to claim it through your insurance co, and they should go after the other guy to get the money back. Your rate will probably go up, though, which sucks.

 

advise your own insurance company of the situation including all paperwork and let their dogs ( lawyers) handle it. that's what you pay all that money for.

 

Lived in Fl a few years ago and believe Myszkewicz is correct. In FL it's really the vehicle that's insured, you declare driver(s) to insurance company. One execption may be if you've got a rental, my old insurance policy carried over for rentals. If the car that this dude was driving was uninsured, I think you're insurance company will have to go after him, but I suspect for what that will cost, they'll just eat the loss.

 

Like most people said, you have two options; you can try to file the claim under your own insurance company and have them handle the situation by trying to get the money back from the person or their company. This will cause your insurance to go up. You can attempt to dispute the rise in the cost if you file a grievance with the Florida Department of Insurance Regulation and cite that the accident is not your fault, so your rates shouldn't go up even though they had to cover it, and you may have a case for it. Your other option would be to sue either his insurance company or him directly. Suing his insurance company is about a 50/50 shot. He represented himself as having insurance through them, and they represented themselves as insuring his car by providing you with partial payment. Despite the fact that he didn't actually have coverage on that car, they still started paying, a judge may make them finish. If you sue him directly, you can likely sue him into bankruptcy and ruin his credit for the next 7 years or more, possibly make him lose his house, his car, and most of his worldly posessions depending on how expensive everything is. While this is IMO a fitting punishment for anybody who tries to work around the system and not have a car insured then get into a serious at fault accident, you would likely LOSE money; business law dictates that your claim would likely be last on the totem pole in a liquidation case, it could take a year or more to resolve anything, and any money that you 'won' in a bankruptcy hearing would likely go exclusively to your lawyer(s). Furthermore, if you sue him directly, you waive the right to claim any damages you sue for on any insurance, as doing so would constitute fraud.

 

Is there any reason not to contact him directly and ask that he pay my car rental and we settle out of court? Thats all that I am really looking for outa this. My insurance covers my medical payments, which I am happy with. His insurance covered my car. Now if he just pays for my rental, I think that is a very generous offer on my part, considering the alternatives. But can contacting him directy come back and bite me in any way?

 

Before doing that, I would go after the vehicle's insurance. If the car was insured, then that person's insurance company is liable for the accident, as long as it wasn't stolen. Dealing with the guy directly is very risky business.

 

I think I can help you some of these questions as I used to be a auto claim rep for a major insurance company.

1) No, your ins co cannot charge you a deductible unless u place a claim with them. Hence if u went through your own ins co to repair your vehicle that would be subject to your collision deductible, if u don't have collision then your uninsured would kick in. Also due to the facts u described to me above, u are not liable, so I know with my company your premium would not be effected at all.

2) You are asking about liability. Let me breakdown the order of who is liable for u. First, the car's insurance is primary. Then it would be the driver's, which is called excess. I'm thinking that the driver's ins co knows they are not primary, but that still does not explain why they authorized rental, unless they just didn't notice that it wasn't the driver's car they had insured, then once they did they revoked the rental.

3) If u do not have rental coverage on your policy, your ins co has no obligation to pay for a rental for u. Why? Because you have not paid any premium for this coverage.

4) U can go through own ins policy to fix your car. Yes, u will have to pay a ded if u have collision, but once all damages are paid out then your ins co would subrograte against the person at fault for the total damages paid out including your deductible. Subrogation is a legal process, so it is very slow, do not expect your deductible back for at least a couple months. Unfortunately, if the person is broke and has nothing to give u, then u have nothing to recover, but I do believe the courts could garnish his wages until he pays back the debt.

5) Obvously, they ruled the driver was at fault since they gave you permission to get a rental. But if there is no coverage they have no obliagtion to pay. The thing that puzzles me is, the driver's cov would be excess to the veh ins. So there would be coverage even if the veh had no ins. And them not informing u of this is very unethical. Another thing that bothers me is that your lawyer dropped the case due to lack of coverage, but he should know to go after the veh ins first and even if it didn't have cov, the driver's liability cov on his other policy would kick in. These facts lead me to believe that maybe there is some key facts you might have unknowingly left out, cause as I said they don't really make sense.

My advice:

1. Contact the vehicle's ins co. They are primary, they should pay first.

2. If the vehicle has no ins, I know my company would pay liability under the highest liability cov of other vehicles the driver has. Ask this company that there cov is excess against the veh, they should pay. If they won't ask them for a written explanation why.

3. If both ins co's don't pay go under your own policy, your ins co will subrogate for your damages, and your rates should not go up. I know at my company they wouldn't.

4. Small claims court would have the same result as subrogation, but I would think your insurance company would be more thorough by going through his assets. Plus when they subrogate they have their attorneys go after him.