# How do insurance companies handle he-said-he-said cases?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-insurance-companies-handle-he-said-he-said-cases/720533>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 21, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-insurance-companies-handle-he-said-he-said-cases/720533 "2015-05-21T17:55:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-insurance-companies-handle-he-said-he-said-cases/720533/21 "2015-05-22T10:16:25Z")

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> [@Quartz](#):
>
> With regard to traffic lights - at least in the UK - it doesn’t matter if your light was green or his was green or both were. A driver may only may only proceed if it is safe to do so.

That’s true, but it’s rather like the situation of a car quickly pulling out of a side street without warning; it may not be possible to avoid any kind of collision.

One term which I have heard, I don’t know if it’s a British thing is [knock-for-knock](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock-for-knock_agreement). This means the insurance companies just decide to each cover half the liability, but no-one’s no claim discount / bonus is affected.  
It’s basically when they’ve decided it will not be possible – or too costly – to figure out who was actually responsible and in what proportion.

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**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-insurance-companies-handle-he-said-he-said-cases/720533/22 "2015-05-23T16:21:35Z")

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> [@GreasyJack](#):
>
> The last little fender bender I had was basically a he-said-she-said parking lot situation. What happened there was the other person’s insurance company denied my liability claim and my insurance denied theirs and at least the guy from my insurance company said in those situations both parties just make a claim through their collision policy for their own own damage. I was pretty annoyed by that because the big honkin’ dent in the _side_ of my truck I think made a good case for me being the backed-into party not the backing party, but my company wasn’t interested in pursuing it.

I had a similar incident. I even had a witness who was willing to tell the insurance company that it was not my fault. I still was 30% to blame. I’ve been told this is a result of no-fault insurance.

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