Minor Fender Bender, not paying up Maryland

calvert4rent · #1 02-01-2008, 04:51 PM

What is the name of your state? Maryland

I was in a minor fender bender in Maryland. Here is a brief account of what happened: I was in my lane the entire time, when the driver in the next lane over (to my left) abruptly switched lanes. He hit the back left and rear of my car with his truck. He had a commercial drivers license as he was driving his company truck. We exchanged our information and went on our way, no police reports.

Here are the details of what happened next:
1) He claims that I was merging
2) His insurance company will not pay my insurance company
3) My insurance company will pay for me (minus my deductible) and I imagine they will raise my rates.

This is all very upsetting to me, because:
1) He is getting away with this by lying
2) He had no damage so he literally walks away while I am stuck with a $500 deductible payment and I imagine higher insurance rates

This actually keeps me up at night because just thinking about it gets me worked up.

So here is my question: What are my options? I would like to recover the entire cost of the damage. I am willing to do what ever it takes, but I just don't know what that is.

My insurance company is saying that it is my word against his word, and the other drivers auto insurance will not take my word over his. The facts however (in my mind) are simple:
He hit me from behind (pictures of damage of car proves it)
If he hit me from behind and there are two versions wouldn't the proof speak for itself?

THANK YOU!!!

(Would I sue the driver, his company or the insurance company? Keep in mind he had a commercial drivers license? What court system would I use to sue him? Small claims? Do I need a lawyer? When there are conflicting versions how does this get solved? Please provide additional information.)

ecmst12 · #2 02-01-2008, 05:19 PM

Stop imagining things. Your insurance company will not raise your rates if they do not consider you at fault. However if you cannot PROVE that he merged and you did not, by having a witness statement, then you are not going to get his insurance to pay. The fact that he hit you from behind does not matter; if you had merged into his lane improperly, then you would still be at fault even though he hit you from behind. Unfortunately, when it is word vs word, everybody loses.