Rear ended

[mychin]

What is the name of your state? CA

I have an ongoing claim going on, but I'm deciding what to do next.
There are three cars involved. In a nutshell, I was the middle car, and the car that rear ended me pushed me onto the car in front of me. This happened at an intersection where, after crossing the intersection, there was sudden traffic so the car in front of me stopped, then I stopped, then the car behind me stopped too late

Basically, Mercury (the insurance of the car that rear ended me) offered to pay 100% of the rear damage and 50% of the front damage. They decided to pay only 50% of the front damage because the car in front of me stated that she felt "2 bumps", hence Mercury believes I hit the car in front of me first...which is not true and the damages (hardly none) to the car in front of me would prove that. The car in front of me is also making a claim against me for bodily injury *sigh*. My incompetent insurance adjuster says that I can either accept mercury's offer or go through my own insurance, but I would have to pay my $1000 deductible. The cost of the damages is $1,011.00. So the insurance would only be paying 11. They said they would try to investigate afterwards and get my deductible back from Mercury (but since my insurance is just paying $11, i doubt theyll pursue it any further).

All this for something that was not my fault. I don't want to accept mercury's offer because I would accept partial liability for the accident, which the car in front of me can use against me. I don't want to just pay my deductible and let my insurance company fight for me esp. since they will only be paying $11 out of their pocket. Any advice?

[moburkes]

I don't have any advice for you. Sorry.

[ecmst12]

You can let the driver of the front car deal with your insurance for the bodily injury. You wouldn't have a deductible on that part of the policy. The problem is that the first driver claims to have felt 2 impacts. Unless you have some kind of proof that this was not the case (such as an independant witness), that's what they're going to go by. You can try taking the driver of the rear car to small claims court yourself, but again if you don't have any evidence, it will be difficult to win. Or you can let Mercury pay 50% of the $1011 and be better off then paying your $1000 deductible (but if you do that, they'll want you to sign a release saying you can't take their client to court).