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Stick to your story.

Unless you backed into her, she was driving too close/too fast or she would not have run into you. She also should have been looking ahead to see the change of traffic lights, and anticipated a possible stop by the car in front.

Personal evidence is still evidence and there are the damage reports too.

That's the thing. I was parked at red lights. She was behind me in the wrong lane, an in her efforts to squeeze herself into the right one she banged into me. And then carried on until I yelled at her. And when we got out to discuss it she left her handbrake off and nearly rolled into someone else. She couldn't drive for gak.

Your insurance has to fight it out.

What Jihadin said. At this point, you don't really do much of anything but answer questions when they are asked. The insurance companies will pick over it between themselves.

 LordofHats wrote:
What Jihadin said. At this point, you don't really do much of anything but answer questions when they are asked. The insurance companies will pick over it between themselves.

This... however, if your insurance companies are anything like ours, you should expect a call offering financial compensation... Pay close attention to this as they may try to slip in a deal in which you assume some part of responsibility.

A fair few years ago I had a long running battle with my insurance company. I made three claims in the space of about 12 months. In the first my car was broken in to, in the second I was hit in the rear with the other driver taking full responsibility, and in the last case my Mum was driving and hit streetlight*.

A couple of months after the last claim I received a new insurance claim and the rate was more than three times what I had been paying. It was about half the value of the car. The increase was more than the cost of repair of all three insurance claims.

I rang up the insurance company. After an initial brush off I wrote an email, and then a couple of days later called again. After an hour or so talking to people who claimed they had the letter but had to admit they didn't have it and couldn't access it, I finally got up to a high enough level of management that they could see my letter. They said they understood my point, but there was nothing they could do. I asked them to escalate me to someone who could do something. That didn't happen. I tried again a couple more times after that.

It got to the point where my existing policy was about to expire and I'd made no progress, so I called another insurance company. They offered me better coverage at a lower rate than I was paying even before the current hike.

The morale of the story - insurance companies are huge bureaucracies where lots of things happen that make no sense and if there is anyone actually empowered to overwrite the system to produce a sensible conclusion then they're not likely to be put on the phone with your average policy holder. So... I don't know, shopping around to companies with good reputations is useful, but even that will only ever take you so far. A bunch of people have given good advice about resolving this in your favour, but it's also true that unfair bs happens all the time.





*I had had knee surgery and couldn't drive my manual car, so I swapped with her to driver her auto.

Insurance companies are bandits and should be treated accordingly.

Rule 1 - Never renew a policy without checking the market. I had a work colleague, a 15 year Commercial Manager who had been renewing his insurance for 9 years on the same Merc. They had cranked his premium up to over £1000 despite the age of the car. Surprise, surprise a quick look on a comparison site showed a better level of insurance was available for circa £300!

Since I bought my first house I have never received a renewal quote that added less than 10% to the sum, usually while reducing their liability. More often than not I have found that I can get a quote cheaper than the year before elsewhere or a call to the company will get an almost instant reduction when you call to cancel.

As I say bandits, brokers are nearly as bad but fortunately not needed these days for more simple domestic insurances.

I totally agree.

I change my insurance companies every year or two.

The same for energy suppliers.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
About a month ago, I was in a minor fender bender. I was waiting at the lights when this old bat smacked into the back of me and then carried on up the side of my car. Her car was more damaged than mine, but I was still damaged. At the time she completely admitted responsibility (oooohhhh I misjudged the gap, sorry!) and we swapped insurance details, but now she's denying responsibility for it. Apparently it's all my fault. And because I couldn't get any independent witnesses (even though this happened in rush hour traffic), the insurance company says that it's likely that I'll have to accept partial responsibility for it, which means higher premiums and no no claims bonus. To the extent that I might not be able to afford my car anymore.

Are all insurance claims this awkward?

Its irrelevant. Your insurance rates will go up even if she your car was parked in your locked garage, and she had to break in to hit it.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I totally agree.

I change my insurance companies every year or two.

The same for energy suppliers.

While I haven't bounced around energy suppliers, that's decent strategery with Auto and Home insurance.

IDK if you have them in the USA. In the UK there are two energy surveillance companies you can sign up with. One of them monitors your energy use and compares your current deal with all the deals available suppliers, and sends you a recommendation every three months about if you should change.

The second one is even more revolutionary. It does the same as the first but it will simply switch your account to a cheaper deal if one comes up.

I would change supplier every five minutes if it would save me a penny. Being "loyal" to banks, insurance companies, phone networks and everything like that is just a way to get screwed

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Being "loyal" to banks, insurance companies, phone networks and everything like that is just a way to get screwed

This is generally me (except I'm generally too lazy to actually constantly change things up), except for banking. I have USAA and, bar none, have gotten better service out of them, better looking out for us, better everything from them than I have any other bank. Whenever we're up for buying a new vehicle, we always get a pre-approval loan from them, take it into the dealership, and usually walk out with an even better rate than pre-approved for

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Being "loyal" to banks, insurance companies, phone networks and everything like that is just a way to get screwed

There's a sales and marketing technique called the 'lazy tax'. This is the practice of drawing in new customers with competitive prices, and then just letting prices drift up with each renewal. Most people don't shop around and instead pay the higher rate, and so pay a 'lazy tax'.

Here's some developments.

A year and a half ago my mother clipped a car that came around the corner way too fast. It was transporting three remarkably human like rodents. One of them, obviously carrying something illegal, immediately got out and walked off. The others gave her a lot of abuse until the cops arrived. They later told a huge pack of lies to everyone; the insurance company, the police, etc. And yet today they still managed to bag three grand for It. Because she clipped them.

And yet in my case, telling the truth might get me no where. Life is funny.

Back when I was in college I had an accident where my insurance company stuck up for me to the point of laughing right at the other person's insurance rep.


It was winter, right after one of the first ice storms of the year. You could always tell who the "out of towners" were if the didn't know how to drive on ice.

I was stopped in a parking lot in my 1987 Cutlass Supreme (the kind that still had functional bumpers that could be bumped) As I was waiting for another car to pass a rather large woman driving a small import rear-ended me pretty good. I got out, expecting major damage. To my surprise, all I had for damage was an inch-long scuff, just bad enough that I couldn't buff it out. I turn around and see her car for the first time. The grill was caved-in, headlight smashed, and the radiator was spewing green fluid everywhere.

Somehow her insurance wanted me to take half the blame. My insurance guy literally laughed at it.

So I just got a letter from the other sides lawyers, saying that my negligent driving caused her injuries and they're suing me for damages. I wish I was more cluded on at the time. She's going to get away with it.

Send it to your insurance company. It's their job to deal with the legal ramifications of claims.

Everything's going to be OK. I was just reminded of something very significant today...traffic lights have cameras in them.

Out of sheer nosiness, who is her insurers? Stating your stationary car is negligent is a bit far fetched.

Cheers
Andrew

Wow, all traffic lights have cameras in them where you are? That would be handy here.

I don't think they all do, just the ones that cover yellow box junctions. You're not allowed to enter a yellow box junction unless you have a clear exit.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I don't think they all do, just the ones that cover yellow box junctions. You're not allowed to enter a yellow box junction unless you have a clear exit.

Unless turning right...? I have to read up on that bit.

But only when your exit is blocked by oncoming traffic. If your exit is blocked by traffic in the exit then you are still prohibited from entering the box junction.

(Sorry used to invigilate the theory tests for learner drivers)

Cheers

Andrew

 AndrewC wrote:
Out of sheer nosiness, who is her insurers? Stating your stationary car is negligent is a bit far fetched.

Cheers
Andrew

She's with the same company I use. I can't tell if that's good or bad.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I don't think they all do, just the ones that cover yellow box junctions. You're not allowed to enter a yellow box junction unless you have a clear exit.

Well I'm in luck then! This happened at a yellow junction box so they should have them.

Also, get this...the other side is still claiming that the incident was all my fault and apparently they have the proof...and if I just relent and admit liability they'll give me two grand as a sweetener. Now, is it me, or does that sound like a bribe offered in desperation? Because if I'm liable, why offer me a penny?

 Future War Cultist wrote:
So I just got a letter from the other sides lawyers, saying that my negligent driving caused her injuries and they're suing me for damages. I wish I was more cluded on at the time. She's going to get away with it.

This is more common than you think, it's becoming almost standard practice and another one those reasons why insurance premiums keep going up. My brother's wife have the same suing claims after the culprits jumped a red light and drove into the side of their car (basically they jumped the lights because they thought they could get away with it). They are now claiming that they shouldn't have been crossing as it was unsafe for them to do so (despite being on green and them being on red).

My parents had a claim go to high court after they had to emergency stop on an roundabout because some jack fool shot across them to beat the queue, my parent slammed the anchors on and stopped without hitting anything; then the van who was waiting in the correct lane (the one the idiot had jumped) moved out and drove into the back of them because he was looking to see if the roundabout was clear (and not in front of him). This one took four years to sort out.

The important thing is just write down your chain of events so that if it takes time you still can refresh the memory - it gets hard to remember all the details after two years! Other evidence will weigh in your favour as to where the damage is and where the major damage is - it's very difficult to 'lie' and the damage corroborate your story.

Most the time people claim they are going to sue you in the thought it will scare you and you'll admit liability and back down. Remember your insurance will cover legal costs (unless it's ridiculously expensive which it doesn't sound like it is).




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Future War Cultist wrote:


Also, get this...the other side is still claiming that the incident was all my fault and apparently they have the proof...and if I just relent and admit liability they'll give me two grand as a sweetener. Now, is it me, or does that sound like a bribe offered in desperation? Because if I'm liable, why offer me a penny?

Of course because their premiums will go up. You stopped at a red light, if someone went into the back, then side of you that's there problem. Unless you were reversing there's no way you are at fault. If you admit fault then it will be your insurance premiums that will go up and that sweetener will feel like nothing. Do not do this, they are trying to get you to relent so it's not on her record (the chances are there is someone in the background driving this not the person herself).