Florida Accident

[MrAron]

Florida
Quick question. Scenario is my car is parked, someone behind me coming out of a school hits my driver side rear bumper. School cop takes down info, takes a month to complete police report. Police report is perfectly complete. I contact state farm other drivers Insurance, they review claim. After a month they state they have tried many times to contact person involved in accident, they deny claim on sole reason of this plus they say police report is not enough for accept liability. My question now is I have to use my own insurance company, can I SUE in small claims court the other driver for my deductible under Florida Law.

 

[adjusterjack]

can I SUE in small claims court the other driver for my deductible under Florida Law.

No.

Read your policy. It requires that you protect your company's right of subrogation.

Your company will subrogate for the full amount of your claim and will refund your deductible when they collect.

If they can't collect you will then get their consent to sue for your deductible.

Which will probably be a waste of time and money because a person that doesn't respond to his insurance company isn't likely to respond to a lawsuit and a default judgment is likely to be uncollectible.

 

[quincy]

Florida
Quick question. Scenario is my car is parked, someone behind me coming out of a school hits my driver side rear bumper. School cop takes down info, takes a month to complete police report. Police report is perfectly complete. I contact state farm other drivers Insurance, they review claim. After a month they state they have tried many times to contact person involved in accident, they deny claim on sole reason of this plus they say police report is not enough for accept liability. My question now is I have to use my own insurance company, can I SUE in small claims court the other driver for my deductible under Florida Law.

You did contact your own insurance company at the time of the accident, right?

 

[MrAron]

I did but police report took a whole 5 weeks to be completed.

 

[zddoodah]

Scenario is my car is parked, someone behind me coming out of a school hits my driver side rear bumper. School cop takes down info, takes a month to complete police report. Police report is perfectly complete. I contact state farm other drivers Insurance

Did you contact the other driver's insurer immediately? You didn't wait for a police report for something this minor, did you?

now is I have to use my own insurance company, can I SUE in small claims court the other driver for my deductible under Florida Law.

You can, but I suggest you confer with your insurer's claims rep about how best to handle the situation. Once your insurer pays the claim, it will seek reimbursement of both the amount paid for repairs and your deductible from the other driver and the other driver's insurer.

 

[BensonBingham]

If the other driver’s insurance is refusing to pay and you’re stuck covering the costs through your own insurance, you do have the option to sue the other driver in small claims court for your deductible. Small claims court is designed for situations like this where you need to recover a relatively small amount of money. Be sure to gather all the necessary evidence, like the police report and any correspondence, to support your claim.