Carry a camera with you at all times if your cell phone does not take pictures. Talked to a friend of mine yesterday and she was pretty mad. About 2 years ago she rearended another vehicle on Black Friday. Her car suffered the most damage. The LEO that responded said there was very little damage to the car she hit and wrote that in his report. She admitted her fault in the accident. Other driver complained of some neck pain but refused medical care from paramedics. She doesn't know if the other driver went to be checked out or not. Well they were changing their vehicle policy and her agent told her that her name was flagged. The other driver had gotten a lawyer and sued their insurance company for $30,000.00 for pain and suffering and an additional $4,000.00 for vehicle damage. Found out it only cost $700.00 to fix the other drivers vehicle. Insurance company just did the pay out and never contacted them about it. if you are ever in an accident no matter how minor Take Pictures Of Both Vehicles.
Why would the insurance company never contact them? We are involved in a lawsuit right now for my husband getting rearended and his car totaled. It also caused some nerve damage to his left hand (he saw it coming and braced) I am pretty sure that there has been contact with the owner of the vehicle that hit him. (It was a hit and run drunk driver - he was the ex-hubby of the lady who actually owned the truck) Luckily it was close to our house and I was able to go up and get pictures of our car - the truck was pulled over about an hour later with a piece of my husbands rear bumper still stuck in the grill BTW - those laywers eat up a lot of the money along with ligitement(sp) medical bills.
insurance companies will do what they want. they do not have to tell you, I have been a victim twice now with crooks suing me, I am not rich. I do own a business and that's the only thing they see. So now I have two suits that have been paid by the insurance, even though I was in the right. It's so nice to work for 25 years just to go to work and wonder if the next customer or employee will sue you and take what you have worked for. It's not fair! The 1st one made his living suing people, he listed his occupation as a preacher. The second was a employee who worked for me 6 years. They got paid off even though the 'accident' happened away from work and they were drunk!
great advice... also take pictures of the road, for the conditions .. some may say the road was snow covered and really it was wet) take pics of the surroundings (so the direction of the vehicles and the re construction experts can determine distances) skid marks if any and this includes if the skid was on snow if you can sneak a pic of the interior of the other persons car do so... you ask why?... if there was an ipod or other electronic device and they ran a red... this pic may be the reasonable doubt you need Quick story: I was driving on a very snowy day. I was driving a BIG yellow school bus. As I crested the hill I dropped my bus into the lowest gear possible because there was a stop sign at the bottom. when I pressed my breaks about 1/3 of the way down the hill the rear end of my bus slid out and clipped a car and I proceeded to slide sideways down this hill and at the bottom I wiped out a small car. as the LEO attended the scene she slid into the side of my bus. I was taking pictures and also took a pic of him sliding into my bus. 6 months later they were trying to charge me with dangerous driving and fail to stop. Till I whipped out my pics!... the police reconstruction team was able to determine the speed I was going, the length of time my brakes were on. I took a pic of my bus in low gear. the angle of my tires and then the cherry was the cruiser in the side of my bus. apparently what had happened is the owner of the mail box took my plate number down and filed a separate police report and it crossed in the system with the scene officers so there were no flags .. so it got to court...
I was rear-ended a few years back, low speed, coming to a stop light. The stinger in the receiver on my vehicle did considerable damage to the car that hit me, but mine suffered no damage, and I couldn't even detect a scratch on my bumper. The accident was duly reported to the insurance company, but I declined to file a claim, as there was no damage to the vehicle or me. A long time later, when we decided to change insurance companies, we discovered that a claim had been filed and paid-but not to us. So apparently some low-life at the insurance company decided to take advantage of our honesty. We reported it, it was taken off our record, but don't know what happened after that.
Thanks Dar that was some great ideas. Before my grandmother quit driving she was braking at a red light and got distracted and bumped the car in front. Little to no damage to either vehicle. Later on she got contacted by her insurance company. They asked if she was ok and how much damage was done to her car. That surprised her. Told them no damage to her car. They then informed her they had gotten a claim from the people she hit for $80,000.00! Agent came out and looked at her car and took pictures. the people claimed she was going 45mph; it was a 35mph zone. No skid marks. They also found out that these people drove over 2oo miles before filling the prescription the doc gave them for pain. Insurance only paid them $3000.00 for the doctor bills and other things.
One of the problems with "frivolous lawsuits" is not lawyers it is insurers. I had a business and went through the same problem - I'd get sued for some stupid thing and my insurer would pay it without even consulting me. I switched insurers and I got sued (again) and was able to make a very good case that my business was in the clear legally but they said it was cheaper to pay out $30,000 to some one who admitted they were suing just to see what they could get.
I've been handling auto damage claims for going on 20 years. Auto insurance companies are very highly regulated by the state they are in. Insurance companies get reamed all the time. You have to remember that insurance companies are always painted as the bad guy. That means that a jury almost always finds for the alleged victim. I looked at a vehicle that had a scratch on the plastic step pad on the rear bumper. She was insured by us. The other company was at fault and they paid her 250,000 which was policy limit on the guy that hit her. She then came after my company for the 200,000 on her policy. It was all for a back injury that she had before that was exacerbated by the latest hit. There are a lot of doctors out there that litigation lawyers use that are crooks. These people always have the same lawyers and the same doctors. Don't get me wrong there are a lot more legitimate claims than bogus claims. The bogus ones do exist though and they are just about impossible to disprove. If someone is truly injured they should be compensated fairly. Whenever you are involved in an accident the most important thing is a witness. It can't be someone in your car. If someone runs a red light and there are no witnesses there is no proof of who is guilty. If someone backs in to your car while you are starting to back out. There is no proof of who did what in a picture. Even a rear end at a stop light. They can say you backed into them. If you are at fault your rates will most likely go up. It doesn't matter if it's 700 or 3000.00. The other thing is that it can do 3000.00 in damage for a proper repair. The owner could then have a poor repair done for a fraction of the price. I've inspected about 12,000 cars. So I've seen a few. If your car touched the other car, there is some damage. A door ding from opening your door into another car can cost as much as 2000.00. At 400.00 an hour for a lawyer the insurance company will pay a claim before taking it to court over a few hundred dollars. 80k, yeah they'll fight that
