Car accident: negotiating with the other driver's insurance company.

In My Humble Opinion
1

[Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but I want to be somewhat circumspect about the specifics of this incident on the off chance that what I post here could be tied to me IRL.]

When one is in a car accident that was primarily, but possibly not entirely, the other driver’s fault, what is the best way to deal with any offer you might get from the other insurance company regarding splitting the liability?

I can just turn it over to my own insurance company to deal with the other company, but I’d have to pay my deductible and hope that my company can recover as much of it as possible from the other one. My local agent has also said that getting reimbursed can take a long time: many months, apparently. I could manage that, as long as I got all or most of my money back.

The only other time I was in an accident, the other person was clearly and fully at fault and the other insurance company just paid me. So I don’t know what to expect in this case.

We’re still waiting for the police report, which I expect to show that the other person was probably going at least twice the posted speed limit when they rear-ended me. IMHO, that indicates that if they had been going the speed limit, there would have been no accident, regardless of what I was doing. So I don’t feel I should bear any liability.

But if the other insurance company claims, whether based on statements from their client, or information in the accident report, that I should pay, say, 25% of the repairs, what is my best recourse? Refuse? Counter with a lower number?

I’m thinking it is possible that if I agree to accept a small part of the liability, maybe about 10%, it would cost me a relatively small amount to be done with the whole thing more quickly, without risking the chance that my insurance company wouldn’t get me as good a deal, and/or would take longer doing it.

But what are the consequences of accepting liability? Will my insurance company raise my rates?

I look forward to hearing from anyone who has experience with this kind of situation.

2

You were rear-ended? I can imagine only a very few scenarios in which you would be at fault. (Perhaps if it was at night, and you were on the road without any of your lights on, or if you were reversing and hit the other car.)

3

Just went through this sort of thing recently. Get a lawyer, save the headache. Don’t go on record for anything or make firm statements with your insurance company or with the other driver’s insurance, until you get a lawyer’s advice. Yes, there can be months of back-and-forth before settlement if the other driver’s insurance contests liability. Your own insurance may or may not be all that helpful in advocating on your behalf, depending on what insurance you carry.

4

Based on my personal experience and non-encyclopedic knowledge of the subject of rear-end accidents:

Scenarios where the person who’s rear-ended is at fault are uncommon. Following drivers are supposed to maintain a safe distance. Crashing into you is evidence they did not, and would need to show compelling evidence to the contrary.

I’d wait to see the police report.

Your insurance agent is highly likely to be far better than you at dealing with the other driver’s insurance company. If for some reason there’s a consensus you’re partially at fault and thus liable (lowering the other guy’s payout), I don’t see that your agent being aware of the situation means your insurance company would have to know about it.

If something smells fishy to you, consulting a lawyer might be advisable.

5

You could get an attorney, but I’d suggest waiting to see what the police report says. If they assign liability to the other driver, I’d just let my insurance company handle things.

6

Didn’t work out in our case. Police report assigned liability to the other driver, but both our insurance and the other guy’s insurance wanted to go 50/50 on liability. Cue the lawyer.

Maybe we just have crappy car insurance.

7

OK, in that case, you could hire a lawyer. But I see no reason to hire a lawyer right off the bat. For one thing, it increases your costs.

8

depends. I live in a “no-fault” state (Michigan) and my insurer covers damage to my car regardless of fault. if the other party is at fault, I can file to recover at least part of my deductible from the other party’s insurer.

9

I imagine the scenarios where the person being rear-ended with the car being hit is at fault outside of insurance scams (swoop-and-squat) are almost non-existent. Let the insurance companies work it out before you spend your own money. Then do a cost-benefit analysis to see whether you’re better off going with their agreement or bringing in your own hired gun.

10

Would you mind naming both companies?

11

If you were rear-ended, about the only way you could be shown to be even partially at fault is if you deliberately braked for no apparent reason in an effort to fuck with the guy behind you, which I assume you did not do.

Remember, their offer is an attempt to settle out of court. They would rather pay you more to settle than pay the costs of going to court, especially if they don’t think they’ll win. I think they’re bluffing, but I don’t know the details of the accident. This is their business and they make a lot of money doing it so you are out of your league without some sort of advice from a lawyer.

My son was a passenger in a car that was rear ended. The trailing driver was ticketed for failing to pay full attention. We are certain she was using her phone but the police had no interest in trying to investigate that. Her insurance company made my son an offer to settle. I sought the advice of a lawyer and he frankly told me that it would be too expensive to hire him, and he told me what to write in a letter. I asked for about $1000 more than what they were offering and they basically split the difference. In this case there was no question that she was fully liable but the principle of how much to settle for also applies in your case.

12

The police do not determine liability. They only determine whether either driver can be given a citation for a traffic offense. Liability is determined by the insurance company’s adjusters, who may or may not take into account any violation for which any driver is cited. The police accident report will also give details, as far as the officer can determine them, relating to the circumstance of the crash. But the officer is not a witness to the accident itself.

13

Tell that to Caldazar.

14

My husband and I got rear-ended by a driver who I’m pretty sure did not have her light on around 7pm or so, when it was pretty dim-- ours were on.

The insurance agent wanted to split the damage 50-50, so I, in my “dumbest broad” voice I could manage, said that my husband was bent on calling a lawyer, but I really didn’t want to get involved with all that, and wanted to settle as quickly as possible. I sort of “good cop/bad copped” him, with my husband being the bad cop in absentia. He asked me what he had to do to make us happy. I told him I needed to talk to my husband.

The next day I called him back. I added up the cost the tow truck guy wanted for towing and storing our totaled car, the blue book cost of our car, the cost of some damaged items that were in our trunk, the cost of our rental car, and $1000, because we were going to have to buy a new car, and we weren’t going to get anything comparable for the blue book value of our car, and another $500 because I knew he would bargain with me. His initial ask was for $1000 less than my quote, so I split the difference, basically tossing the $500 appendage that was an appendage to begin with, and got my whole ask. He made us come in and sign a paper that promised we wouldn’t seek any more damages from them. It’d had been long enough, that neither of us was worried about injuries, but a good lawyer probably could have gotten us released from the contract if we were later found to have serious injuries, and at any rate, we both had health insurance.

We bought a new car, and we ended up making payments on it, but that was our choice, because we used part of the settlement to pay some other stuff-- paying off one credit card, and our insurance for a year was a better deal than buying a car outright, and the payments were only around $100/month for two years, and it was a much newer car than the one that had been hit. It was a better dog-transport vehicle as well.

TL;DR: you can threaten to get a lawyer, and that may be enough— you may not actually have to get one. Have a realistic quote at the ready.

15

Former insurance adjuster:

-Don’t get a lawyer unless we’re talking about tons of money or injuries. A lawyer won’t do anything. People would threaten me all the time. I’d just tell them to forward their letter of representation to me so I can send their attorney our liability decision.

-Police reports don’t assign liability, your claims adjuster does. Look at your policy, there’s probably a line in there that says something like “we accept or deny liability.” Now, let’s say you lost a judgement or something, the insurance company would pay on your behalf, but that still doesn’t change liability.

-Pay your deductible and move on with your life. Let the insurance company handle it. If they can get your money back they will (it’s in their best interest).

16

I would wait for the police report and your insurance to sort it out.

In general, even if you feel partially responsible, never admit to any degree of fault to anyone at any time. Not to the other driver, not to the police, and especially not to your insurance company. Also, never speak to the other driver’s insurance company.
The police will investigate and determine whether any driving infractions occurred that may have caused the accident… Answer their questions with short and concise answers and do not volunteer information they do not ask for.
Report it to your insurance company in the same manner. Their insurance investigators will determine fault and liability. If the other driver is cited and/or found at fault it will be at 100%.

Usually your own company will pay the claim and then recover it from the other company so it shouldn’t affect you at all.

Beware that the No Fault or 50/50 liability may come in to play when you are on private property such as in a parking lot, etc…

17

My WAG is that commasense ran a red light after a cursory checkl that no-one was coming. Other car was going way too fast but wasn’t expecting anyone as the light was in his favour so didn’t brake in time. There are many other ways you could be rear ended and still bear some blame though.

18

To clarify my earlier post, the exact wording on the police report was “Unit in error” and I am in Ohio. Not a legal expert by any means, so I have no clue what the legal distinction is between unit-in-error and liable/liability.

19

How would that lead to being rear-ended? For your description I’d expect a side or corner hit, not a rear-ending.

20

Turning left or right