I take things one step at a time. We never had to escalate. In my case, there is no cost to escalation to the lawyer. My son in law is one, and he told us he won’t charge us for anything. Well, not up front. He gets his along with my daughter in inheritance when we pass away. 
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“Pay me now, or pay me later…”
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Unless you figure out a way to take it with you.
Naaah, I’ll spend it all first. The girls all said that is what I should do because I paid for their college educations. They said they got their inheritance up front.
Mine too. It was a great investment.
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Odd I suppose, wife and I are thrifty, do a few fun things but want to leave the critter some jingle, know she will blow it faster than us.
The biggest mistake you made was admitting there were no injuries. When you do that, the insurance company will pay you peanuts (if you’re lucky) for your vehicle and send you on your way. Whatever pittance they offer will be the last, best, and final offer and will be a fraction of the cost to actually repair or replace your vehicle. The smart thing to do after any accident is to claim that your wrist(s) or back or neck are bothering you from the force of impact and go to an urgent care and get x-rayed.
Then suddenly, the insurance company will be willing to negotiate, and at least taking the “injury” into account, you’ll get enough money to repair/replace your car with an equivalent running vehicle. You can always tell them later that you’ve healed and the pain is gone once they offer you a fair settlement, which covers your actual losses (i.e. the cost to repair your vehicle, or if it’s totalled, the cost to replace it with a similar model in running condition.)
That is a legal term called FRAUD.
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I have to agree with bchohen2010 about claiming an injury to coax things along. I’ve had to do this twice in my life because insurance companies were trying to lowball me on a car value settlement. They were NOT my friends.The first involved my wrecked Corvette. After 3 or 4 days of back and forth the Hartford insurance guy was very sarcastic and said “That’s our offer. Take it or leave it”. I told him where to place his offer and hung up.
I was put in touch with an attorney who had a reputation. He told me to give them a call, mention headaches/back pain, and drop his name.
Insurance man was STILL sarcastic and dismissive. He then asked me who is the attorney you “allegedly” talked to. I mentioned the name on the card and the light switch flipped instantly. Now Mr. Sarcasm became my best buddy, offered me what I asked for in the first place, and said the whole thing was a misunderstanding.
I went down there an hour later to pick up a check and Mr. Sarcasm was not there as “he had to leave unexpectedly due to a family emergency”. Not. He knew I was going to ream him a bit which is what i said on the phone as I had no intention of being cordial after what they put me through.
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And it happens everyday in every community
Agree…still doesn’t make it right.
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Unless someone can figure out how to alter human nature, it’s unlikely to change.
Several states have appointed a special Deputy Attorney General whose sole area of responsibility is to prosecute insurance fraud. The penalties are nothing to sneeze at, so–hopefully–those penalties would serve as at least somewhat of a deterrent.
This special prosecutor works on all types of insurance fraud, but because this is an automotive forum, I copied just the verbiage that relates to auto insurance fraud:
Auto Insurance Fraud
- Receiving treatment for phony injuries.
- Doctors, medical facilities, chiropractors and other medical professionals overbilling for treatments or billing for treatments not provided.
- Staged car accidents with the intent of cheating insurance companies.
- Attorneys filing lawsuits for phony injuries.
Ya think this influences why insurance is so expensive?
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How’s the air up on your high horse? Seriously though, if you took the time to read my post, I NEVER said anything about condoning or encouraging fraud. I certainly did not suggest that anyone claim false injuries or other losses in order to profit from an accident. I just explained how one must proceed in order to recover their actual losses after an accident. In an ideal world, one could simply be honest with the insurance company, and they would in turn treat you honestly and offer a fair and reasonable settlement for your losses without any games or BS. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a world, and smart people understand that they must play the game as it lays.
Consider the following two accidents I had in my life:
- 1991 Toyota Tercel, destroyed after a lady ran a stop sign and I hit her on her driver’s side going about 60 MPH. I had paid a Toyota dealer about $5800 to replace the engine in this car approximately one year before the accident. Of course, I am not claiming the car was magically worth $5800 more as a result, but at the time of the accident, a similar car in comparable condition/mileage cost about $3000 in the classified ads. Because I told the other driver’s insurance that I had no injury, they ended up paying a paltry $1900 for my car. Had I raised the specter of possible injury, they might have paid the $3000 which a comparable car was selling for at the time, and thus were my actual losses.
- 1995 Dodge Caravan (3.0L), destroyed after a lady left-turned into my path while I had a green light, and I hit her passenger side going about 45 MPH. This time, my wrist was bothering me from the airbag going off, and I went to an urgent car and got X-rayed. Initially, they only wanted to pay a paltry $750 for my destroyed van, because that’s what the Blue Book said it’s worth. At the time, I couldn’t touch another similar vehicle on Craigslist for less than $2000. The pain went away after a couple days, but I didn’t tell them that. Because I held the specter of a possible injury claim to their feet, they magically “found the money” to pay the $2k that I needed to replace my vehicle.
Now there might be some here who call that “fraud”. I call it being smart. At no time did I seek to do anything immoral or to profit from the accident. I just needed to play the game as it lays in order to recoup my actual losses–i.e. to replace my vehicle which was destroyed due to no fault of my own. And to those who are talking about “insurance fraud” and “legal penalties”, etc. Give me an effin’ break. No state insurance inspector is going to bother someone looking to recoup a couple thousand dollars to replace an old car. They’re looking at people trying to claim tens of thousand of dollars or more in “pain and suffering”, etc.
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The only injury accident I ever had was back in 1968 when my VW got broad-sided. I got a bruised hip that required nothing except an Xray and stiff for a couple weeks but the girl I was with got a broken arm. My agent handled everything with no problem. The other guy failed to yield as he came roaring through the intersection. I had settlement on my car in a week which was enough to pay it off and buy my 59 Pontiac. There was no problem with any medical issues. Side air bags would have saved her but I suspect seat belts would have damaged me more with half the seat pushed in. I was just a kid. Didn’t need a lawyer. It always happens after you’ve overhauled the front end, new clutch, body work, headliner etc. The risks you take. I’ve never had a drink and driven since.
You’re trying to rationalize fraud and pat yourself on the back . . .
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I had a similar accident, a hot rodder was behind me in the fast lane sound familiar, well he tailgated me for so long I decided to pull over well I was not fast enough he pull into the slow land but not all the way I slowed down and began pulling into the slow lane my front wheel caught his left front fender causing very slight damage to his front fender “he refused to give me his information” because he did not own that vehicle after giving him my information, I ended having to leave the seen because he refused to give me his information. I did have photos of his car and him so my insurance still paid because the true owner sent it to my insurance. I was not happy with his behavior of driving or his poor treatment about the not providing information. I was located in a bad location in the City so getting out of that neighborhood was more important.
I suggest you re-read your own post. You most certainly did.
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