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Starting the new year off right, by getting screwed over
Dr. Frenchenstein
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So back in late october i got rear ended by a cab. I was at a complete stop, making a left turn, he plowed into me. My car was undriveable, and ended up having 10k in damages. I got all his information, and called AAA to tow me to a service station, and called my insurance company to find out what to do. They started a claim for me, and got a rental car, adjuster, etc etc. I was told i need to pay my deductible as if it were an accident that was my fault, but it would be recovered in subrogation when my insurance company gets their money back from the other. It has been almost 3 months since the accident, and i was told a few days ago it should all be worked out by the end of January.
Lo and behold, last night i get a letter in the mail saying my insurance rates are going up by 12% due to a "no fault accident - driver struck insured." i did a bit of research and it looks like my insurance company is eating the cost of this and i get boned with a rate increase. No fault typically means, i pay for my damage, and he pays for his because it can't be determined who's at fault. The other driver is CLEARLY AT FAULT. I don't know if my insurance company is being lazy and not going after them, if the other company is being shady and mine is just giving up, or if my company is recovering the losses and ignoring me. Basically, i am out my $500 deductible, and future expenses due to me losing my safe driver discount (i haven't had an accident in almost 10 years, and that one was like $300, I had a speeding ticket 2 years ago that carried no points however, it wasn't mentioned in the reasoning for the rate increase. Just this accident) I am absolutely furious at my insurance company, and will be dropping them with extreme prejudice ASAP.
My question remains, is this legal? There is a dispute form included, which i intend to send. If only to keep my rates the way they are until i drop them. If/When i drop them before this is settled, am i essentially forfeiting my deductible in case they recover the costs? This whole experience has been a NIGHTMARE.
Between my house and this BS, i swear i have some of the worst luck. (relatively speaking)
Lo and behold, last night i get a letter in the mail saying my insurance rates are going up by 12% due to a "no fault accident - driver struck insured." i did a bit of research and it looks like my insurance company is eating the cost of this and i get boned with a rate increase. No fault typically means, i pay for my damage, and he pays for his because it can't be determined who's at fault. The other driver is CLEARLY AT FAULT. I don't know if my insurance company is being lazy and not going after them, if the other company is being shady and mine is just giving up, or if my company is recovering the losses and ignoring me. Basically, i am out my $500 deductible, and future expenses due to me losing my safe driver discount (i haven't had an accident in almost 10 years, and that one was like $300, I had a speeding ticket 2 years ago that carried no points however, it wasn't mentioned in the reasoning for the rate increase. Just this accident) I am absolutely furious at my insurance company, and will be dropping them with extreme prejudice ASAP.
My question remains, is this legal? There is a dispute form included, which i intend to send. If only to keep my rates the way they are until i drop them. If/When i drop them before this is settled, am i essentially forfeiting my deductible in case they recover the costs? This whole experience has been a NIGHTMARE.
Between my house and this BS, i swear i have some of the worst luck. (relatively speaking)
Dr. Frenchenstein on
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When a semi devoured my last car, the driver of the semi lied his ass off to his insurance company, saying it was my fault. When I hunted down the local state police records office and sent his insurance company the police report with what actually happened, they rolled over immediately.
Insurance companies seem to be pretty lazy by default; if you want to come out on top of this you're going to need to do some more legwork with getting in touch with both your insurance and his insurance and determine why they believe the accident to be "no fault".
Do as the other posts say. Check with the officer that was at the scene and see who's listed at fault on the report. Depending on what it says, you'll know how to proceed.
This. There have been a lot of accident threads on the forums covering a lot of states, and from most of them it sounds like most states work just like Michigan: If a cop is called, there is a police report. It's the reason you call the police when you're in an accident. Police reports are not limited to crimes, they can cover just about anything, I've got a police report in a drawer around here about a tree that fell across a road and damaged my car while it was parallel parked in a storm. In at least most of the counties around here they're officially called incident reports, any incident the police are involved in is supposed to result in one.
Do what this poster said: Contact the police (it helps if you know the name of the officer but the date and location of the accident will be sufficient) and track down that report. With that in hand your insurance will be forced to reverse their decision, and if it shows the other guy or his insurance company screwed them, they'll be the ones going to court.
If you drop your insurance and go to another company, you're still screwed unless you get the record set on this incident. It's still on your record and it'll ding your rates on any other company.
well you boned up the police report, but no crime does not mean no fault.
your insurance company should absolutely have pursued a claim against the cab company. They are losing ~$9500 by failing to do so, and they had an obligation to you to pursue the claim. Someone, somewhere, really just fucked up.
Check your dispute form for anything that indicates that submitting it indicates you agree to forgo litigation or arbitration rights you have under the original policy. If it does not say anything like that, submit it. If it does, call them and yell at a manager until it goes away or until it is clear it will not go away. At that point, you can make the choice whether it's worth having an attorney send them a letter.
Sorry to hear you're getting screwed.
Fight fight fight. Be the squeaky wheel. Retain a lawyer if necessary; or at least threaten to get one involved. Demand satisfaction. Eventually your insurance company will have to do some investigating. Do you have pictures? The information for the other driver?
You said the cop gave you his info. Do you mean his personal badge number or the info for the other driver? Either way these are leads that should be followed up on. See if you can get the cop to write up a statement if he remembers you.
It goes without saying and I'm not trying to make you feel dumb, but in the future you should insist on a police report being filed. It protects you in these sorts of situations.
cop gave me his personal info, to act as an after the fact witness i assume.
Playing Devil's (insurance company's) advocate: It doesn't make financial sense to me to pay out $10K+ (minus $500 deductible) and then hope to recoup that back in future rate hikes (and risk you dropping me), especially since this is being determined in subrogation/arbitration and not litigation. I'd much rather have won subrogation and got the cabbie's insurance company to cut me a fat check.
IANAL, but I think the subrogation ruling is final; and your chance to affect the outcome is before the arbiter comes to a decision. Maybe you could sue your insurance company for something (no idea what, maybe your representation was incompetant?) or perhaps the cabbie's insurance company or the court of arbitration (maybe you think they're in cahoots?), but the idea that both insurance companies weren't interesting in collecting as much as they could from each other is silly.
Texas is definately an exception to this. Got in an accident last year, called the cops. Did nothing, just made sure no one was hurt and had us exchange insurance. That was it.
I've been in two accidents in Texas where the police were called and both times a report was filed.