A few weeks ago I was in a small fender bender. Basically a parking lot bump. I have a large vehicle, a Chevy Avalanche.
I was backing out of the spot I was in, I was on a small grade so my truck was only rolling. My foot was actually on the brake.
BANG! I nail this older model Chevy Cavalier. I immediately stop, run around my car to see this woman stepping out. She looked as if she were possibly in her 60’s (come to find out she’s 41)
I say to her, Are you Ok?
Yes, yes she assures me.
I say what do you want to do, she has a small dent in her rear quarter panel and I have nothing.
We exchange Insurance info and last week I get a call from my insurance agent. No problem I was expecting the call.
Then I hear it…[insurance agent] - Mrs. X is saying she is having back pain, and is trying to file an injury claim…also, her sister who was in the car is doing the same [/insurance agent]
WHOA! I said…Mrs. X was alone. There was no one else in the car.
This puts everything in a bit of a tizzy, because it is essentially my word against hers. What the fuck! why is this woman completely lying…Duh…$$$$$ cha-ching!
Anyway, to make a long rant short, the insurance agent says, Mrs. X is ‘suspect’ with her claim because your car had only rolled 10 feet…and the damage does not demonstrate that she could have back pain for the issue.
FUCKING GREAT! SOMEONE WANTS MY INSURANCE COMPANY TO CUT THEM A CHECK!!! EEERRRRRR!!! Peoples depths of moral depravity make me sick!
I can’t fucking believe she’s filing an injury claim…Thank god I have good insurance.
Any witnesses to the accident or anyone riding with you? (I take it the police weren’t called). I’d definitely get your insurance company’s adjuster to look into fraud about this. It sounds like s/he already mistrusts the claimant to begin with and hope that s/he checks out to see what kind of claims these people have filed before. Hopefully she and her sister will get busted.
I realize that there are valid reasons for filing a lawsuit, but the right to sue anyone for anything is so badly abused these days that I’m seriously beginning to think that no one should be allowed to sue anyone for anything anymore. Or at least make the process so difficult and the payouts so small that only those with legitimate cases would bother. Make punitive damages payable to a charity that the plaintiff chooses, and only pay the plaintiff the exact amount of his or her medical costs, no more. Or something. If anyone has a better idea, I’d love to hear it.
Just consider it payback for owning what is probably the ugliest car ever made.
As to the suggestion to call the cops, I don’t know positively (meaning: no, I don’t have a cite) but I was always led to believe that police won’t come for fender benders in parking lots. Something about it being private property and a civil vs. criminal matter. Have I been misled? Would the cops actually show up if you called to tell them that you’d put a small dent in someone’s car, and no one is hurt, and you both have insurance, but would they please come anyway?
I am in the same situation. A few weeks ago a lady plowed into me at 45 when my car was going about 5 through an intersection. We were there for hours with the police and she was walking around chatting on her cell phone. Her brother appeared and rapid fire Spanish was exchanged.
From that point forward she held her neck and had trouble walking. My insurance rep openly admits this is a bullshit claim, but they may just pay a small settlement. Unbelievable.
Oh, and I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this and I hope it works out cleanly and easily. My post is looking a bit snarky now on re-read and so I just want to clarify that…
Ahem…I happen to be in the .05% of the population that like the truck…er…SUV??? Thank you veyr much.
No there were no witnesses unfortunatley. It was my fault not calling the police…But still. To file a friggin injury claim from thsi is just terrible. There is no civil suit, she is not sueing me, her insurance company may sue mine if mine does not pay an injury suit. But I am not being sued…
I got slammed into abotu 2 months ago by a guy on a test drive. When I talked to a lawyer (and posted here) I got told ‘You’re not really hurt enough to make a case’.
Just because you don’t hurt right after the accident doesn’t mean that you aren’t hurt. I once had a mild case of whiplass that hurt for several weeks and caused me to lose about a four days of work. I felt fine right after the accident. It wasn’t until about 4 or 5 hours later after I had calmed down and rested for awhile that it started to hurt.
Not saying that the lady that you hit really isn’t hurt, just that it is possible that she is.
Well, I don’t know about that for sure. All I can say is that way if the other person wants to drag you into court on a bullshit injury settlement, they might be a bit more hesitant if the cops have been there and would be able to say that they were full of it.
If you happen to be in a situation in which someone else arguably damages you or your property, you are entitled to try to profit from that situation independent of whether or not you incurred any injuries, as well as the severity of any injuries actually incurred.
Just another aspect of what makes our country great.
(Oh yeah - you probably woulda seen her if you weren’t driving a gas guzzling behemoth. Serves you right! ;))
Do note, Phlosophr, that this thread is now subject to discovery. If the plaintiff’s lawyer serves a request for you to turn over documents evidencing the accident, you will be required by law to hand over this thread.
I had something similar happen to me a few years ago. A guy ran a stop sign and hit me. There was $1100 of damage to my car – it didn’t look that bad, and I about died when I was given the estimate – but nobody got hurt.
On the scene the guy tried to convince me that I had hit him. Bull. Not long after the accident, my insurance company told us he was trying to sue me for (imaginary) injuries. They got him to go away and I never heard another thing about it.
(I cleaned up my language here in case minty green is right and lawyers might see it. Hi lawyers!)
Thank you veyr much.