Legal question on a hit-and-run

[BurnsWhenIPee]

They have not.

 

[MileHigh]

I was at a red light in June and just as it turned green, I got hit from behind. Not a lot of damage, but enough. Thankfully, the driver pulled into a lot and they gave me their insurance information. Filed a claim with them and I had to find a repair shop to get it fixed because "we can't recommend any places."

Turned out, their insurance company sucked as I could not find any shops that would do work with them because they are bad at paying. Filed with my insurance company, got it in the next day and they pursued the insurance company for payment.

Pain in the ash, but it worked out. Hopefully, it does in this case too.

Good luck.

 

[sgreenwell]

Definitely will update, and without outing, I am guessing you may have knowledge of this complex.

Anyway, officer who was coming out was called away on an emergency, so they are waiting for the original responding officer to come out when he's back on duty Friday.

Daughter took photos of everything - her car and his - with the matching damage, license plates and all. Said when the officer called to say he couldn't come out today, he mentioned citing this guy for leaving the scene of an accident, so that gives me hope. Seems there's no disputing what happened.

My only fear is there's a police report filed, yet there's no way to know his insurance information so it basically stops there. Hoping his insurance info is on the report, and I'll just dump everything with them and pursue from there.

Thanks to all for your help!

Told my daughter to make sure she buys a Christmas present for this witness, no matter what happens. She saw this accident sometime after 10 pm, called the cops and stayed up to come outside and give a statement about what she saw. Clashy young lady.

It sounds like you mostly have a handle on this, but yeah - Make sure the police actually come out and file the report, and collect the info. Unfortunately, I doubt he's going to get arrested for DUI or anything like that at this point, maybe not even leaving the scene of an accident, but at the very least having the information for insurance purposes is going to be important for your daughter. With what she's collected, and with a police report, I doubt the other person's insurance (or, if they don't have insurance, your daughter's insurance company ashuming she's covered for uninsured motorists) would fight a payout.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Thanks. I'm just hoping for the perfect world - the officer comes out, gets my daughter's stuff entered into the report, seeks out the driver and gets his info and insurance entered into the report.

Then I can drop a huge file of the police report, witness statement, photos of the damage to both cars, and hopefully the report will include a citation for leaving the scene of the accident, to his insurance company and it's not a huge fight. And ashuming he's insured, obv.

I guess part of my frustration is my belief that my insurance agent should be advocating on my behalf, or at least advising me on the entire process. It's a big company (State Farm) and we've been with this agent for about 10 years, 4 vehicles and 4 drivers, homeowners' and umbrella policies, and paid the ever-rising premiums with no arguments and never any claims. I reached out to my rep yesterday, explained what happened and asked if there's anything I should be looking out for or doing proactively. The only response was, "You'll file with their insurance company. Or you can file a claim through us and pay your deductible."

Thinking it may be time to shop around for a new provider.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Thanks. I'm just hoping for the perfect world - the officer comes out, gets my daughter's stuff entered into the report, seeks out the driver and gets his info and insurance entered into the report.

Then I can drop a huge file of the police report, witness statement, photos of the damage to both cars, and hopefully the report will include a citation for leaving the scene of the accident, to his insurance company and it's not a huge fight. And ashuming he's insured, obv.

I guess part of my frustration is my belief that my insurance agent should be advocating on my behalf, or at least advising me on the entire process. It's a big company (State Farm) and we've been with this agent for about 10 years, 4 vehicles and 4 drivers, homeowners' and umbrella policies, and paid the ever-rising premiums with no arguments and never any claims. I reached out to my rep yesterday, explained what happened and asked if there's anything I should be looking out for or doing proactively. The only response was, "You'll file with their insurance company. Or you can file a claim through us and pay your deductible."

Thinking it may be time to shop around for a new provider.

Or, and I say this as someone who has worked for a State Farm agent in Pennsylvania since 2013, ask for a transfer of agents.

One thing I wanted to add is that your premiums should NOT increase if you go through State Farm on this because you were not at fault. The vehicle was parked and unoccupied. We don't ding people on that; at least in Pennsylvania we don't.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Thanks. I'm just hoping for the perfect world - the officer comes out, gets my daughter's stuff entered into the report, seeks out the driver and gets his info and insurance entered into the report.

Then I can drop a huge file of the police report, witness statement, photos of the damage to both cars, and hopefully the report will include a citation for leaving the scene of the accident, to his insurance company and it's not a huge fight. And ashuming he's insured, obv.

I guess part of my frustration is my belief that my insurance agent should be advocating on my behalf, or at least advising me on the entire process. It's a big company (State Farm) and we've been with this agent for about 10 years, 4 vehicles and 4 drivers, homeowners' and umbrella policies, and paid the ever-rising premiums with no arguments and never any claims. I reached out to my rep yesterday, explained what happened and asked if there's anything I should be looking out for or doing proactively. The only response was, "You'll file with their insurance company. Or you can file a claim through us and pay your deductible."

Thinking it may be time to shop around for a new provider.

Also, the key here is obviously getting the other driver's insurance information and filing a claim through them. What then happens is the company will speak to their insured and your kiddo to get the facts of loss. If the other driver doesn't respond to the calls, that will obviously slow down and gum up the works but you will still be able to upload and submit photos and documents to them for the adjustor to view. I had a customer whose car was struck by another vehicle last year and she was absolutely adamant that the other driver was at fault (true), it should be their insurance paying (also true) and she wasn't going through her coverages and paying a deductible. This company, which I'm not allowed to name, is notorious for dragging its feet on claims and took nearly six weeks to accept liability and pay out.

Good news for you is this company only operates in PA, so I think you're safe. Unless the car that hit your kid's has Pennsylvania plates.

 

[Twirling Time]

Your middle infielders need to know which field the batter at the plate hits to so the off-ball fielder can get a jump to cover second.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

If only the guy had used his high beams. (cross-thread)

In all seriousness though, as long as your daughter has pictures, she should be able to get the guy's info. Sometimes you have to let the process play out. Perhaps your daughter's insurance company can find out what the other guy's insurance is.

Are there also any video cameras around? If so, have your daughter try to obtain copies of the video.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Thanks Baron and all. The "let the process play out" is key, and goes against all of my urges. I want this buttoned up today, and it isn't going to happen.

No video cameras in the complex parking lot.

Other update - officer and daughter made contact yesterday, and she got all her info to him for the report. Officer is going to get with the apartment complex office on Monday to cross-reference the license plate they have with their records to get his identity, then contact him to get his info into the report.

Then the report will be sent to daughter, and she will file a hit-and-run report with the prosecutor's office. They will contact the other party again to get his insurance info, and after that report is finished, we will be able to file a claim with his insurance company.

Sounds like everything is progressing as it should be, and at least the car is driveable (though she can only open her drivers door about 6 inches, so she has to get in the pashenger side and slide over, but no biggie).

Part of my problem is that I want to swoop in and fix it all for my baby. But she's 23 years old and is very capable of handling it all. So I need to stand back and only help when she asks for it.

 

[Cosmo]

Went through something similar a couple of months ago. Came out of a restaurant at around 9 p.m. one night to find a note on my windshield saying my car had been backed into. I drive a black SUV and it was dark, so I couldn't see the initial damage. I was thinking someone had just backed into my bumper trying to parallel park, but I couldn't really see anything. The next morning, I saw it -- dude had backed hard into my left pashenger door. He was fortunate, because if he gone another foot to the left, he would have wrecked both doors. Guy was a good citizen, called police, left a note with his insurance information. A report was filed. I went through my insurance (State Farm), who immediately found I was not at fault. They set up the process, recommended a body shop, took care of my rental car (up to $900, or about three weeks). Ended up being around $4,000 in damage, as the entire door had to be replaced because the stability bar on the inside of the door was damaged beyond repair. I paid the deductible, and State Farm is working with Progressive (his insurance) to get the $500 back, though that process takes some time. All in all, a fairly straightforward process.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Filed a claim through our insurance, which gave us a list of repair places that we can use without messing with estimates, we will pay the $500 deductible.

The claims adjuster said they have the police report and will work with (fight?) the other clown's insurance company to get the deductible back and refunded to us.

The only question when we took the car to the repair place was if they would total the car out. Kind of surprised they didn't - needs a new front quarter panel, new rear quarter panel and 2 new doors on the driver's side.

Seems a lot to repair on an 11-year-old car.

But a relatively painless process, I guess.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Another update - got the car fixed, paid the $500 deductible on a $6,000 repair and all is back to normal.

Got a notice from our insurance claims department, with a document for us to sign to approve them going after the hit-and-run driver. Has his name in it. He's uninsured and I looked on Casenet - he has a couple of pages worth of traffic infractions, including serving a 10-day "shock time" jail sentence for repeatedly driving while suspended or revoked.

Looked him up on Facebook (he has an unusual name), and he appears to be about 40 years old, and he is listed as being employed as a General Maintenance Technician at the apartment complex where they both live. This makes me want to drive up there and raise holy hell, but also it nags at me that he probably has keys to my daughter's apartment, while not being much of an upstanding citizen.

Probably just let the insurance company pursue it, but darn. Seems like a lot of twists and turns here.