I was in a small skirmish yesterday (me on a motorcycle the other party in a sedan). I’m OK and I think her auto has more damage than the bike. It was a low speed collision.
She has a newer car and claims that she doesn’t have insurance. :dubious:
The damage was minimal enough to both vehicles that a police report wont be filed in the database. Basically, the PO’s took both our information, that of the witness and wrote up a report and gave it to both of us. No injuries.
Is it possible to verify that someone doesn’t have insurance?
I can think of a few reasons why someone would/could claim to not be insured until pressed into giving the information.
Possible scenarios;
She doesn’t want another claim against her policy so she’s claiming to not be insured.
She knows I didn’t have much damage to the bike so I probably wont try to get my insurance carrier involved. Actually, I’d like to NOT involve my insurance since the deductable is probably about what the damages are. Unless she is insured, then I can just deal with them, or have my insurance carrier deal with them.
What are the laws when it comes to this type of situation in WI?
PS, - She was issued a citation by the P.O., so there may be some level of fault on her part.
Can’t speak to WI specifically, I am unfamiliar with cheese laws.
But in general whether or not someone is insured is their own business. Their insurance status in no way relieves them of any financial obligation to you in the event of an accident, it is simply a tool available to THEM if THEY want to use it.
So no, unless your state actively monitors which vehicles are registered with an insurance company in the state (and some states do this, but the system is imperfect), and if they are willing/able to share that information with you, then that’s pretty much the only way you can find out. Short of rifling through their glove compartment and finding an insurance card, and then calling the insurance company to see if there is a policy currently in force. But that would be wrong.
In this particular scenario it sounds like the po-lice came. I’m assuming WI requires liability insurance–if she has none she’s going to have to eat a pretty hefty ticket. So if she’s insured she’d have given that information to the fuzz, and it will be on the po-lice report.
IANAL. But…. If you have documentation that the accident’s not your fault, then in my state you don’t have to pay a deductible, and your insurance covers you. We in Michigan have a type of no-fault, though, and it doesn’t look like Wisconsin does, so that may have some bearing on whether that applies to you or not. In our case, the insurance would pay for the repair, and then go after the other driver’s insurance company (or the other driver if she’s uninsured).
Since I’ve always had no fault insurance, I’m kind of curious how that works in these other states. For example, I have liability coverage which pays for damage I do to you when I’m outside of Michigan. To protect myself when I’m anywhere, though, I pay for collision coverage. But if you’re in a non-no-fault state, does that mean you don’t pay for collision insurance and you just have to hope the other person is insured, or count on your uninsured driver rider? Do you even have something called collision coverage? If so, what’s it for, if the other driver pays and you also have uninsured driver coverage? Or is there no such thing as uninsured driver? Or does that cover medical only. Lots of lawsuits?
(Yeah, people say no-fault costs more, but I like the security of knowing that I pay for my own collision insurance.)
Notice the irony of a “no-fault” state that has rules allowing a disparate treatment of the policy holder depending upon the absence or presence of fault.
Can’t answer for WI but here in Ohio she’d be an idiot. Not having insurance gets a fine, and a licence suspension of, I believe 90 days, aaaand you still have to pay for the other person’s car. Regardless of fault since you weren’t supposed to be on the road as driving uninsured is illegal. I believe though that if the cops were called they could verify insurance by the VIN number on her vehicle. Not sure though.
She is still responsible, however, regardless of her insured status. Contact your agent and ask him/her about this. Believe me, if they end up paying for your car they will go after her to reimuburse them.
I recently went through almost the same scenario here in Texas. The person who hit my car was driving a 2004 truck but claimed to have no insurance. She was issued a citation by the police officer. I got a copy of the accident report and found the year and model of her truck, license number and VIN number. Then I called my own agent who confiremed that the other person did, in fact have insurance. Eventually her company paid for the damages.
Yes, the police were there and NO she did not get a citation for failure to be insured.
She got a citation for failure to signal a right turn.
Palikia, heh, I’m thinking that she is probably trying to get out of both filing a claim (if she does have insurance) and paying for any damages without some lengthy court action. If I can find out who her insurance carrier is then I can make one call to them and get this straightened out without involving my insurance. If my insurance has to pay or get involved then I probably wont file a claim (damage is superficial and it’s a 21 year old motorcycle). If I can work out an agreement with her insurance for a small damage claim then I will settle on the side with them. I wont even try to drag her into court over this if she’s uninsured.
How do I find out if she has an active insurance policy? I’ve got her vehicle info, ID, Tags, her DL #, etc.
Your insurance agent has access to that info. Whether they’ll give it to you, I don’t know, but even then, their info. isn’t always 100% accurate. Several years ago I was going to change insurance companies, the new company wanted my old companies policy info., which I provided. A few days later I was accused of lying as they couldn’t verify my old policy.
You could contact your state atty. gen,'s office, they should be able to advise you as to what information is available. In WA., a no fault state, you can get a judgement and file it w/ the state. If it remains unsatified the other driver will be prevented from renewing their license and registration.
The simplest route would be to turn it over to your insurance company. Policies differ, but I don’t think one minor accident will raise your rates and if you don’t have another claim, for a period of time, usually three years, this claim will be dropped from the record.
You still need collision coverage (if your vehicle merits it or your lender wants it) for two key reasons:
The accident could be your fault. If you crash into a parked car, you can’t sue its owner for the cost of repairs.
Coverage defenses. Sometimes the other driver’s insurance company might not be liable (intentional torts aren’t covered, for example).
Collision coverage is first-party (property) insurance. It protects your property against damage regardless (with some exceptions–this is insurance, after all) of the cause. Liability coverage is third-party coverage. It covers you against other people’s claims based on your negligence. Third-party insurance was never designed to protect the property of others (that just happens to be a common benefit).
Yes. See the link in my previous post.
Just covered this above.
An uninsured driver is one who (illegally) has failed to satisfy the state’s financial responsibility requirements. There is also the related underinsured driver, who has policy limits that are below the amount of your damages. You usually have to carry underinsured motorist coverage (which is different from uninsured coverage) to protect you against this situation. In most jurisdictions, these policies cover bodily injuries, but not damage to your vehicle. That is covered by collision and comprehensive.
