tombedorchestra
Junior Member
For legal aspects of this situation, I live in New York.
My wife was driving on the highway and avoided an accident with other cars during a snow storm. She came to a complete stop, but unfortunately she ended up getting rear ended in our van. Our insurance company called the other driver's company and they are admitting full fault for the accident. My wife also is suffering from (legitimate) whiplash. She was treated the day of the accident, and two days after. She's on medication and lost a week of work.
The back end of our van is quite messed up. The tailgate, bumper, back left panel is cracked. It pushed everything forward and I believe we have to replace the cargo floor pan. Looks to be a bent frame in the rear pushing into the gas tank and muffler. The collision also caused damage to the front right fender / mirror area.
So, the other company admitted fault. We decided to put a claim in through their insurance company. Couple of questions...
We live in a no-fault state. Therefore, we can only re-coup costs for repair of our vehicle + diminution of value, correct? We cannot claim any other losses through the other company?
Medical bills will all come out of our PIP. We cannot claim any pain / suffering amounts caused from this unless it was a serious / permenant injury as defind by NYS law, correct?
The other insurance company is coming out to look at our vehicle. Should we be present for this inspection? I'm worried that they will simply try to fix it very cheaply and 'ignore' certain damages simply to save money. We'll have our own independent shop give us an estimate as well, however we're kind of at the mercy of what the othe comany decides it 'wants' to pay / do, right?
As far as diminution of value... I've heard that's hard to get included in the settlement. If we get several dealers to provide a $$ amount they would accept less because of the accident, would that suffice? Now, what if the vehicle already had an accident recorded prior to this accident (it was a rental with 1 accident when we bought it). Would that previous accident affect our current claim for diminution off of this accident?
Thanks!
My wife was driving on the highway and avoided an accident with other cars during a snow storm. She came to a complete stop, but unfortunately she ended up getting rear ended in our van. Our insurance company called the other driver's company and they are admitting full fault for the accident. My wife also is suffering from (legitimate) whiplash. She was treated the day of the accident, and two days after. She's on medication and lost a week of work.
The back end of our van is quite messed up. The tailgate, bumper, back left panel is cracked. It pushed everything forward and I believe we have to replace the cargo floor pan. Looks to be a bent frame in the rear pushing into the gas tank and muffler. The collision also caused damage to the front right fender / mirror area.
So, the other company admitted fault. We decided to put a claim in through their insurance company. Couple of questions...
We live in a no-fault state. Therefore, we can only re-coup costs for repair of our vehicle + diminution of value, correct? We cannot claim any other losses through the other company?
Medical bills will all come out of our PIP. We cannot claim any pain / suffering amounts caused from this unless it was a serious / permenant injury as defind by NYS law, correct?
The other insurance company is coming out to look at our vehicle. Should we be present for this inspection? I'm worried that they will simply try to fix it very cheaply and 'ignore' certain damages simply to save money. We'll have our own independent shop give us an estimate as well, however we're kind of at the mercy of what the othe comany decides it 'wants' to pay / do, right?
As far as diminution of value... I've heard that's hard to get included in the settlement. If we get several dealers to provide a $$ amount they would accept less because of the accident, would that suffice? Now, what if the vehicle already had an accident recorded prior to this accident (it was a rental with 1 accident when we bought it). Would that previous accident affect our current claim for diminution off of this accident?
Thanks!