Hi all, I'm new here, and I'm in Alabama.
I was recently in a small "fender bender," and thought I was covered by my mother's insurance. Unfortunately, she hadn't paid the month before, and I therefore did not have insurance.
I was backing out of a parking space when my car collided with another girl's. She was talking on her cell phone and speeding (which is why I think I didn't see her, she was coming around a corner), and even admitted that she saw me backing out but thought she had the "right of way" and decided to just honk and keep going. After that, she called me repeatedly to harrass me about paying for her damages, to the point that I told her if she called again I would file harrassment charges. She wouldn't give me her insurance information or claim number (I had to look up her info on the police report, and got the claim number from the company). She also REFUSED to show me any kind of estimate... I asked several times, and at one point she simply said that it was around $600 (but didn't show me anything).
She went and had her car fixed in Texas, and said that her damages were $1300, plus another $700 for a rental car, and she wanted me to pay that! I told her I would only do things through the insurance company, but I have NEVER seen an estimate OR a receipt for anything. Furthermore, the damage to my car was worse than hers (and my car is significantly more expensive), so I went to the shop to get an estimate to compare. It came to around $250, but I asked them to hypothetically say they were going to have to replace EVERYTHING (completely unneccessary things, but I wanted to compare) and it came to around $900 (MAXIMUM). I feel certain that she got tons of other things fixed, but I don't know since I haven't seen anything. She's been in SEVERAL other accidents, and I know she had a lot of other damage to her car, so I don't know if she attempted to have that fixed as well or what's going on.
Now I haven't seen ANYTHING, not even a bill from the insurance company, and I've had a subrogation company AND collection agency call me!
What I really want to know is if it is legal for her to get things fixed without even showing me an estimate. I also don't think the accident is entirely my fault, but how can I prove that?
She says that she has a lot of witnesses who say I was "flying out" of the parking space, and she says that my radio was "so loud they could hear it," although my radio wasn't loud at all at the time. Furthermore, she left the scene (we filed a police report the NEXT day) because she was VERY late to a concert she was playing in (since I go to school with her, I told her it was ok because music is way more important, and I didn't think she'd be evil about the whole thing). The thing is, I stayed there for about fifteen minutes afterwards because it was my first accident and I was really shaken up, and there was NO ONE ELSE AROUND. So I think she might just be having other friends say they saw it (this was in a music school parking lot).
What do I do now? I think the damages she stated are WAY over-inflated, and seriously, who spends $700 on a rental car?! I just want to know if it's legal at all for her to do this in another state, and without ever showing me an estimate of any kind.
Thanks!
I was recently in a small "fender bender," and thought I was covered by my mother's insurance. Unfortunately, she hadn't paid the month before, and I therefore did not have insurance.
I was backing out of a parking space when my car collided with another girl's. She was talking on her cell phone and speeding (which is why I think I didn't see her, she was coming around a corner), and even admitted that she saw me backing out but thought she had the "right of way" and decided to just honk and keep going. After that, she called me repeatedly to harrass me about paying for her damages, to the point that I told her if she called again I would file harrassment charges. She wouldn't give me her insurance information or claim number (I had to look up her info on the police report, and got the claim number from the company). She also REFUSED to show me any kind of estimate... I asked several times, and at one point she simply said that it was around $600 (but didn't show me anything).
She went and had her car fixed in Texas, and said that her damages were $1300, plus another $700 for a rental car, and she wanted me to pay that! I told her I would only do things through the insurance company, but I have NEVER seen an estimate OR a receipt for anything. Furthermore, the damage to my car was worse than hers (and my car is significantly more expensive), so I went to the shop to get an estimate to compare. It came to around $250, but I asked them to hypothetically say they were going to have to replace EVERYTHING (completely unneccessary things, but I wanted to compare) and it came to around $900 (MAXIMUM). I feel certain that she got tons of other things fixed, but I don't know since I haven't seen anything. She's been in SEVERAL other accidents, and I know she had a lot of other damage to her car, so I don't know if she attempted to have that fixed as well or what's going on.
Now I haven't seen ANYTHING, not even a bill from the insurance company, and I've had a subrogation company AND collection agency call me!
What I really want to know is if it is legal for her to get things fixed without even showing me an estimate. I also don't think the accident is entirely my fault, but how can I prove that?
She says that she has a lot of witnesses who say I was "flying out" of the parking space, and she says that my radio was "so loud they could hear it," although my radio wasn't loud at all at the time. Furthermore, she left the scene (we filed a police report the NEXT day) because she was VERY late to a concert she was playing in (since I go to school with her, I told her it was ok because music is way more important, and I didn't think she'd be evil about the whole thing). The thing is, I stayed there for about fifteen minutes afterwards because it was my first accident and I was really shaken up, and there was NO ONE ELSE AROUND. So I think she might just be having other friends say they saw it (this was in a music school parking lot).
What do I do now? I think the damages she stated are WAY over-inflated, and seriously, who spends $700 on a rental car?! I just want to know if it's legal at all for her to do this in another state, and without ever showing me an estimate of any kind.
Thanks!