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Parking lot fiasco

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uscafarr5

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina

My wife was in a parking lot recently and was involved in an accident. The story goes like this..... She was backing out of her space, the other party in the accident had not gotten into her car yet. My wife backed into the middle of the aisle, where at that time, her sister informed her that she had dropped something on the ground outside. My wife stopped, allowed her to open the door and grab the item (matter of seconds). During this matter of time the other party had gotten in her car and begun to back out of her space. At this point in time, my wife backed approximately 5-10ft where she was met by the other car. The other car had come from the other side of the aisle and she was backing at the point of collision (at a faster speed, albeit that is circumstantial). In my opinion, the accident should be deemed a no fault. There was an accident report taken at the scene, which was deemed no fault because it was in a private parking lot. The insurance company, however, has named my wife to fault. A few questions:

1) Shouldn't my wife, if anyone, be considered to have the right of way since she was already in the aisle? The other lady admitted as she got out of the car that she didn't look behind her, basically admitting fault.

2) What are the options I have for appeal of this decision? The insurance company never contacted witnesses to attain proper information, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the other side doctored their statement based on conversations that I've had with my insurance company.

3) It took the insurance company two months to come to this decision, and the claims representative never responded to numerous messages that were left with her. I've never had a claim take this long, is this normal?

I'd appreciate any help and/or advice!!!
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
Then it's pretty easy. State Farm will pay out both less their respective deductibles and charge both for an accident. They won't litigate against themselves.
 

Dave1952

Senior Member
So all of this "fault finding" is internal to State Farm. Your wife, not you, should try to make an appointment with her agent to discuss the issues that she wishes to raise and perhaps discuss appealing this "at fault" ruling.

Good luck
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Then it's pretty easy. State Farm will pay out both less their respective deductibles and charge both for an accident. They won't litigate against themselves.
Unless, of course, SF finds one driver 100% at fault. If that's the case, then the not-at-fault driver won't be charged with an accident.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
Unless, of course, SF finds one driver 100% at fault. If that's the case, then the not-at-fault driver won't be charged with an accident.
But they're not inclined to do so absent really compelling evidence. It's easier to not pay the deductibles and raise both rates.

Frankly, even if I 100% believe the poster's story, I can't see that happened. Both cars were backing without paying attention to what was going on.
 

uscafarr5

Junior Member
that is my biggest argument. both were backing, and honestly, not paying attention. unless i'm missing some pertinent information, (both witnesses that were in the car with my wife corroborate her story) i feel as though SF is mistaken in their ruling, and quite honestly they've done a poor investigation. the only thing i can think of is, per SF, rates are not raised unless damages reach a certain total. total damages to each individual car is not enough to warrant a rate increase..... both does warrant that increase.
 

uscafarr5

Junior Member
I have spoken to a supervisor at State Farm and think that I am starting to get to the bottom of things. It seems as though there has been some misinformation given and misunderstanding in exactly what happened. I will update and let you know what takes place. Thanks for the advice!
 

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