Liability Insurance Only - Fighting the other company

[krc1002]

What is the name of your state? CA

A month ago my husband and I were involved in an auto accident. We were going through a intersection with a light when we were broadsided by another driver. We had the green light but he is claiming he did and with no independent witnesses, the police report says that liability for the accident can not be decided.

His insurance company wants to assign us 80% of the liability for the accident. We were hit is the rear door and quarter panel of our car as we exited the intersection. It spun us in a 360 and we ended up the opposite lane 30 yards away. They are claiming that we could have done more to avoid the accident BUT because he hit us in the rear of the car they are WILLING to give us 20% liability.

We are very concerned about taking any liability for this accident. We did not run a red light. We have been told that if we take any liability, we can open ourselves up to a lawsuit years from now. We only had liability insurance on our car so our insurance company will not do anything at this point to help us.

We have a totalled car in our driveway and over $3,000 dollars in medical (I was taken by ambulance to the hospital). What do we do now? I have approached two attorneys and have been told that they will not take our case because there were no witnessess.

 

[teflon_jones]

Sue the other driver in small claims court for your damages and get ready for a fight.

You should also take this as a lesson learned that carrying only liability insurance is a bad, bad idea.

 

[ecmst12]

With that much in medical bills already, with the accident only a month ago, you should consult with a lawyer. He/she will at least be able to tell you if you have a chance of being found not at fault. If you have a case, they will work on contingency.

Your insurance company, however, SHOULD be defending you against their liabilty claims, since that's why you have liability coverage. They should fight to prove you not at fault, because then they don't have to pay anything.

 

[krc1002]

We are still fighting the liability issue with the other company. They have gone up to 30% . Our insurance company has closed our claim because the other driver did not file a claim against us. Our insurance has us down as 0% liable and if he does file a claim they will proceed. They have said this is as much as they can do for us unless he files a claim. Interesting how he is claiming we are at fault but he hasn't filed a claim against our policy.

I am still wracking up medical bills. My husband let the insurance adjuster for the other driver know that we are going to file a lawsuit if we can't seem to get this issue resolved. We will do it through small claims, I guess, since we can't find an attorney willing to take on our case. I think it is because it is not very much money to them but to us it is a lot.

The whole basis of the adjuster liability assignment is based on "he is our client so we believe what he says. We have to back him up." Regardless of what the police report says (no liabilty assigned by police officer). I mean if no liability was asssigned by the police report then let's start at 50/50 not 80/20 and work from there.

Her arguments fall flat. We asked her if they had sent out an investigator to see where the accident occurred. Of course not, "we don't need to, we believe our client". He states that he saw us a car length before hitting us as we crossed the intersection. My husband pointed out that a car length is at most 20 feet and anyone only looking only 20 feet ahead while driving is not paying attention. She had no aswer to that. She told us we should have done more to avoid that accident, "what swerved into the other lane, into oncoming traffic?" my husband asked. She had no answer. This whole thing is absolutely crazy.