Legal Advice..PLEASE a.s.a.p

Factual Questions
1

Good evening,

Roughly 2weeks ago this Thursday my truck went missing from a local club.

I phoned ICBC insurance and the police.
My case went from the adjuster to the “special investagator”.

Here is my story:

Early that night my friend and I had arranged to meet at a tavern on the north side of town.(after he got off work)

He gets off at 11pm takes roughly 10-15min to get home.
Walks from his house to the tavern 15-20min.
Roughly 35 after 11pm. I’m there waiting for him. We are there till about 1:45 2am “last call” in that time I drank 2 beer he had drank I don’t know how many rye??

So we leave that club for the other across town. I’m guessing we get there close to 2am. I parked my truck just down from the bar (5 car lengths) We go inside and meet some people we know…

We ended up talking to one of the waitress that we know there, and sugjested we go for breakfest. Around 2:15 I run out to start my truck and set my heat on high. I then took the ignition key off the key ring and turned the truck on, locked the doors…(not sure though)and headed back in the bar.

Alright time to leave. we walk out around 2:30am start walking towards the truck, I notice it’s gone. WTF?? were’s my truck?..waitress thinks I’m kidding, I think someones playing a joke. Were searching for the truck cant see it. We jump in the waitress car to go looking for it(still thinking someones pulling my leg) We ended up searching for the truck around the establishment and area say 10min. Its around 2:45. Alright I’m gonna phone Insurance and the cops. We drive my bud home (north side) 10-15min, roughly 3am. She drives me home talk about the truck and what I’m gonna do for about 5min.

20-25 after 3am. I go into the house look for paperwork on the truck (insur papers licence plate…) I then phone Insurance(why) where I lived prior, the police even told us phone insurance first then us. on any claim, excluding death. So I talked to ICBC what 15-20min??? I don’t know.

I then phoned the cops but the recording shows I phoned them 4:40 I believe. So some wheres theres obviously mins missing. I dont know. Could have spent more time here or there. We werent exactly pin pointing the time that night or any night we go out.

So the truck goes missing late thur early fri. They find it sat. they told me it sustained damage, I asked them what kind of damage. they told me were they found it. I asked where that was. then they told me it’s at the towing yard. I don’t know where that is. I’ve only lived here 3months.

I go to the towing company to take a look at my truck.
I entered the compound with the tow truck friver behind me.
assesed the damage. the front end had been pushed in, not bad because the bush guard had sustained most of the damage.
Though the bracket that holds the bumper snaped off and pearced the oil filter that sits behind the bumper.

What the trucker and I figured is that the truck hit something,pearced the filter, and was driven till it died.

The trucker then told me he had seen the truck sitting on the highway for some time. He thought it was broken down not stolen.

Heres what ICBC says:

  1. I told the police I had the keys to the truck when i phoned them, I did…the command start&house keys not truck key.

  2. Why I would start my trk with a key and not use my command start?..I had to turn my heater on high…so I had to go in my truck…I could have turn the heat on the press the command start but I didn’t.

  3. Why the thieve/s didn’t take anything?..It died on a busy highway, they would’nt have time.(panic)

  4. Why didn’t I start my truck when I went to the compound?
    I said no way was I gonna touch or tamper with evidence.
    he asked if i checked the dipstick, I said no, I noticed oil all along side the truck and the filter was pearced. So there would be little or no oil in the truck. He thought that was very suspious.

  5. He thinks and says I did it. Also say he cant prove it.
    I say I didn’t F-ing do it. IF I did, I would pay the lousy deductable and go through insurance.

  6. So the last thing he says is I’ve got two options:

    1. we go to court.
    2. I tell him what he wants to here, and he closes the case and I pay for the damages.
      I told him I would love to take him to court but can’t afford it.
      What would make this a closed case??? Do I lie and say yeah whatever I did it. Or say okay I cant go to court, I’ll pay for the repairs.
      So theres my case. Should I go to court??
      Please let me know.
      thepurestofpain@yahoo.ca
      " "@hotmail.com

    Thank-you in advance.

2

I don’t have an answer, but I am eminently curious as to why so many posters here think that our fellow Dopers who have hung out their shingles to practice law should continually be rendering their services to total strangers in this forum online.

First of all, this is “General Questions,” not an advice column. You know, involving questions of a factual nature? Second, attorneys are licensed professionals, so not only do they deserve to be paid for their legal counsel, but by rendering legal advice in a forum such as this, they leave themselves open to malpractice charges.

Get your phone book, and call your local bar association. They can hook you up with a lawyer that might give you free advice.

3

I’m confused. If the insurance pays if you DID it, and pays if you DIDN’T do it (which you’re apparently trying to prove), why would you care what they think? In either case, you pay the deductible and they pay the rest. With my car, if there’s no other driver’s insurance to turn to, my insurance ought to pay whether the damage was done by me, or a thief, or an uninsured driver. What am I missing here?

4

P.S., in light of Phil’s eminently correct post – I’m curious about the situation as described. I’m not asking for information prepratory to rendering a legal opinion, which – sorry – I don’t intend to do.

5

pldennison has an excellent point. Especially since it’s been said here many times that your local (where are you?) bar assn for $25.00, gives you a lawyer for a half hour.

So don’t ask us law questions or medical questions or psychiatrist questions unless you want to take some major risk.

6

No legal opinions from this quarter either, but if you want to try for some free advice and/or make a complaint about your insurance company, you can call your state’s Insurance Commissioner. If you can’t find that number, I’m sure the Attorney General’s office can point you in the right direction.

7

Sorry, but I find it difficult to sympathize with people who leave their vehicles running and then walk away. Even if it’s cold out, get a coat! You don’t seem to have been tending to any kind of emergency. Even if you’d lock the doors, windows are pretty cheap compared to the vehicle. – And you’re not even sure that you did lock the doors! What were you thinking???..

8

What’s a command start? :confused:

9

Here’s a link to help you contact your state’s insurance commissioner. If you have a complaint about how your claim is being handled, that’s who you need to contact.

http://www.naic.org/1regulator/usamap.htm

10

…Not to mention the whole DRINKING AND DRIVING thing!

Let’s see now, let me get this straight… The cops and your insurance company aren’t overly sympathetic when you tell them about your truck disappearing after you left if running while you went into a bar to have a few drinks. That about summarize it?

Personally, I am shocked that the cops and the adjustor didn’t fall at your feet weeping with sympathy for you.

11

Welcome to the board! Looks like you’ve received the advice you need (as well as a few admonitions). I just thought I’d add a quick note, that you really shouldn’t post a question and expect other members to e-mail you an answer. Come back and check your post. It’s common courtesy.

12

A remote control starter for your vehicle. Many people in Northern Areas use them. Kinda like a remote door lock on your keychain, but instead of unlocking the doors it starts the vehicle. Usually they have safety measures like killing the engine if it is put into gear without the key in to deter theft…guess that doesn’t work to well :wink:

13

I worked in Auto Insurance Claims for four years in Indiana. You didn’t state which area of the world you are from, so you force us to make generalizations.

First of all, you may not even get to court. Many insurance companies have a clause that forces you into Arbitration. Basically it means someone other than a judge will decide whose right. The insurance companies have the upper hand there because they work with the arbitrators on a regular basis. Usually you can’t go to court until after Arbitration has failed (and usually you wind up paying ½ the costs of Arbitration in accordance with your insurance contract).

If your insurance company firmly believes that you have committed fraud, they need to provide you evidence that you committed fraud. Sometimes the insurance company will pay for the damages and then turn around and have you arrested and sued for insurance fraud.

Some insurance companies also have higher deductibles if the keys are left in the car. So even though you have a $250 deductible for Comprehensive (theft) claims, your deductible might be $1000 if you left the keys in the car. By in the car, it doesn’t necessarily mean the ignition. If you are in the habit of leaving your keys in your car, check with your insurance agent if you have a higher deductible clause for leaving them in the car. It might change your mind about the practice.

I would think an insurance company would be very careful about accusing you of fraud. If they are refusing payment, ask them to send you a letter stating WHY. If they accuse you of fraud and you didn’t commit fraud I would talk to a lawyer about suing them for defaming your character. Also if they accuse you of fraud, they need to provide reasonable evidence. A speculation of fraud is not enough.

14

Since Shango hasn’t made an appearance since the OP (you all probably scared him off), I will fill in.

ICBC - Insurance Corp British Columbia

It is a provincial insurance program that all (well, almost all) the citizens of BC are forced to swallow. It is easily one of the largest, fattest wallowing pig of a government “program” I have ever had the disfortune of dealing with. I can easily believe that what shango said. Vancouver does have a real high rate of insurance fraud (I used to live there). I have a good friend whos wife works in “Special Investigations” and I used to routinely hear of them smelling “fraud” and short paying claims all the time. Usually, the “customer” or “fuck-ee” lets it slide, since its usually not worth the effort to go against them. This guy, if he’s on the level, really should get a lawyer.

15

Good-day,

Just want to thank everyone for giving me some advice, which was what I was looking for.

Thanks to you who did!!

“pldennison” That was my first post bud!
I agree totally that attorneys deserve to get paid for their prfession. All I was looking for was an opinion. If this upset you enough to make you cry, maybe you should have stopped reading sooner.

I apoligize if this offended anyone else!

To the others thank you again.
esp, Bernse.

p.s. I have an interview with legal aid today.
…command start was not programed correctly.

16

Thank heavens it didn’t. Get over your bad self.

I hope this one was your last, though, unless you want to take the time to understand what the different fora are for, what kind of questions belong in them, and what the SDMB etiquette is. If you can do all that, welcome aboard.

17

…but I was more fortunate…Major bummer, shango. :frowning:
I parked and locked the car (which I had borrowed from a woman I know, named “Lena”), and visited another friend; this was in Hawthorne, CA–a few miles from L. A. International Airport.
Within about 20 minutes I got a call from the Hawthorne Police–at the home of the friend I was visiting.
To sum it up, two youths somehow got into the car, started it without a key, and drove it for about a quarter of a mile before abandoning it, poking out of an alley, but not quite even on the sidewalk.
The police found Lena’s number in the car and called her; she called my Mom, who gave them the other friend’s number. The friend drove me to where the police said the car was.
Sure enough, there it was, poking out of the alley.
I checked it thoroughly; no damage (but I later found that a Walkman, some jumper cables, some Vise-Grips, and a cane I use were stolen). When I was a kid I learned not to stop speaking to the police or firemen until you’ve answered all their questions; I waited a while on the scene until the cop there finished filling out his report and handed me my copy. I drove the car home, shaking my head in disbelief at the situation. Also baffled were the Hawthorne Police, my friend at the scene, Lena, my Mom…everyone who would or should have known about it.
How did they get into the locked car? (I had the windows up; when I got there they were halfway down.) And why did they suddenly abandon the car? Only after they had decided what was of value?
In California auto theft is, of course, a felony (a “public offense”–CVC 10851), but in this case it was a real puzzler.

18

They got in the car in less than 10 seconds…more than likely with a slim jim. Not much of a puzzle I bet.

Why? Probably just kids that did it for fun. Consider yourself and your freind lucky the car wasn’t totalled and/or and used in some other crime.

19

I have to ask the OP…WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??? (Like many of the others responding!) I can’t imagine having a few beers, starting my car–outside a bar–and leaving it unattended! It sounds like a hoax to me.

Why would you leave the scene of where your truck was stolen from, allow this waitress to dorp off your friend, and then, when you got home a couple of hours later call the insurance company FIRST?
I can’t imagine anyplace where stealing a vehicle would not constitute a serious offense, and you wouldn’t call the police first and foremost, IMMEDIATELY!!!

It’s things like that that make everyone’s insurance rates go sky high!!! THANKS!

Sassy

20

He called pl ‘bud’ and survived. I’m impressed.