Recovering rental fees (Colorado)

[wantinglittle]

my wife was rear-ended by a commercial box truck. Driver was cited for driving without a license and driving recklessly. Both drivers have Progressive. She was found not at fault on our policy. But commercial policy is holding her as at-fault. We were initially told our rental would be paid for from the commercial policy as our adjuster assumed the commercial adjuster would change position. After going to Progressive's internal subrogation, the commercial policy did not change its position and we are now out $1,000 for the rental.

Someone suggested I take the commercial policyholder to civil court. To not hire an attorney but represent myself using a simple AI generated complaint. The other driver will then turn this over to Progressive and progressive will just compromise it out as it would be cheaper than them actually paying their lawyers to respond to the complaint.

Is this all valid information? am I running any risks here?

 

[adjusterjack]

Is this all valid information?

Yes.

Except for the part about the insurer settling rather than pay their lawyers. That is absolutely not true. They often settle based on the advice of their lawyers but not because they don't want to pay them.

In fact, Colorado is one of the few states that allow attorneys to represent litigants in small claims court. See Rule 520:

https://www.courts.state.co.us/userfiles/File/Self_Help/Small_Claims/Small_Claims_rules(1).pdf

am I running any risks here?

Sure. Like any litigant you run the risk of not winning.

Fortunately, getting rear-ended creates a presumption that the other driver was negligent, a presumption that is very difficult to overcome.

And, yes, they might settle once served. But that's no guarantee.

What is the other driver's insurer's reason for denying the claim?

 

[wantinglittle]

Driver claimed my wife swerved in front of him. That's all.

So if lawyer can represent in small claims, then should I go there instead? The initial reason for civil court was because a lawyer couldn't rep in small claims and therefore Progressive wouldn't get involved.

 

[Zigner]

Don't use AI to write your complaint. Just don't. If you can't figure it out yourself, then you need an attorney.