auto accident; insurance won't cooperate

What is the name of your state? GA

The car involved is in my name, as is the insurance, but my son is listed as the principal driver on the insurance, and he has the car to himself at all times. He was rear-ended by an elderly lady, and the damages were totaled at $1600 to fix by our insurance company. The lady's insurance co. decided that the damages they would pay came to $200. The company sent a check for that amount to my son, even though we never agreed to settle for that, so we sent the check back. Can we take them to small claims court to receive the total estimate from our quote? Also, can my son seek compensation for lost wages during the whole episode? (The car has not been repaired yet)

This sounds exactly like my first accident! Kind of strange..

Anyways, does it show anywhere or is there any proof that it was totally the other person's fault for the accident? Like the guy that rear ended me, he told the police and its stated on the policee report that it was his fault.

They shouldn't have sent you a check if you didn't sign any release forms or agreed on it orally (and they do keep phone conversations recorded most of the time, I'm fairly sure). The insurence company for our first guy kept playing run-around on us, took forever to call back, then punished my mom for the storage of the totalled car by deducting $400 from the $2100 they agreed to give my mom for the car (crappy 1993 ford escort, but it was my car and I was driving it to work and back) for storage fees which we shouldn't have had to pay.

Then, after loosing a job, loosing a vehicle, and having whiplash from the right side of my neck all the way down my back to the lowest part of it (not to mention burns from the seat belt across my chest o.0) they initially offered me $1700 dollars - that is about 1000 for medical bills and 700 for pain, suffering, loosing a job, loosing work at my other job a few days, loosing out on a family vaction, having family members take car of me because i was a gimp...

Needless to say, I laughed at the woman and told her I would be retaining a lawyer. like I told another person who posted here, the other guy's insurence rep. will seem nice, but they are hired and paid by their company to pay out the minimum amount of money that they can for accidents - they aren't your friends in this matter. They are trained to wear you down psychologically (which is what the b**** did to my mom, I'm not happy about that 400 being taken away for their own idiocy).

My advice is to get a lawyer, or at least get some advice from one and find out what is the best route for you. If you are still intending to do this on your own, you guys shoud look up information online, or perhaps buy some books or go to the library on information on how to deal with insurence companies. Good luck!