Random Troll’s truck is almost forty years old, and he rarely drives it. I don’t think anyone would be surprised he pays for liability only.
FYI, this is how it looks like when I checked my policy recently. Sadly I didn’t check it when my agent gave me a better deal. It is Allstate so make sure to check it when buying insurance from their agents.
When I had previous accident, I contacted that person’s agent in another state and told him what happened, he was surprised that the police didn’t respond. That’s why I didn’t call them this time.
The estimate I received from the shop today is $1500. I asked my friends and family about the attorney with contingent collection in the future. They all said that it’s impossible even bring this to the court and the lawyer could eat all the compensation. I’m feeling at a loss now. In addition, she seems experienced in doing this:
12/13 accident occured, she gave me roadside assistance which made me think it was insurance
12/14 my agent contacted her to get her policy (it was also activated on that day)
12/19 I contacted their insurance again to check the claim status. They insisted on taking her statement to determine whose fault and repair cost. That lady didn’t return or answer their phone calls despite multiple attempts
1/4 The agent called me saying that she didn’t have insurance at that time, it was the day after the accident. As a result, I was not only able to report it to the police but also do anything else after 3 weeks of waiting.
I would be interested to hear the reasoning behind this assertion. Why is it impossible to sue her for your damages in court?
Regardless, you seem to believe there is no chance of recovering any money but have you even contacted her with your repair estimate yet? Has she refused to pay it?
Excellent thoughts. My thoughts are paying a lifetime of collision insurance vs. the cost of replacing a less than $5k vehicle in the event of a crash with an uninsured motorist, I’d rather gamble. Although, I agree that the possibility of getting into an accident seems to be getting more…probable. I was hit at a stop sign myself in late 2018.
I do have full coverage on my wife’s 2013 vehicle. So I’m not advocating carrying no insurance. I’ll probably drop the full coverage when the car’s over 200k miles/10 or so yrs old, though.
Everyone can do as they wish. It’s a free country for the time being!
And just how is it the agents fault that you did not find out what you were paying for. If you said you only wanted liability that will be what they write the policy for.
I did that for many years myself. Heck, I went so far as to be self insured for about a decade and then decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Situations vary all over the spectrum. Collision for a 20 year old male driving a 15 year old Mustang is likely to be cost prohibitive and make no sense. An older person driving an econobox worth about the same amount is likely to be a much more palatable situation. Just pointing out the blanket statement about being a waste of money isn’t always true. Surprised me when I looked into it. Enough to change my position on it anyway 
If the person doesn’t have any assets, then they are considered “Judgment Proof”.
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I’ll have to revisit the cost of collision coverage. I’m 44. Last time I got a quote I was in my early 30’s. $11 a month is doable. At the time I got the quote, I wasn’t interested. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but it didn’t seem worth it on a beater. Might be an option to carry collision on my clunkers now. But I don’t get the senior discount…so I dunno…
I believe there’s something can be done against her. The problem is people around me don’t believe it and they dissuade, refuse to help me. I have never dealt with lawyer/ court stuffs before so I don’t know where to start. Even I break even after the compensation, I still want to persue it.
If it’s more important to harass the person than actually get money out of them, gee good people are harassed all the time. So after reporting her for not completing an accident report if that’s the case, you go to small claims documenting your loss. You don’t need a lawyer. Just pay your fee and explain your loss to the judge. If she doesn’t show up you win. If she does, you probably win something anyway and you get a judgement. You attempt to collect for 90 days with certified mail. Then if she works, you can garnish her wages for maybe $50 a month but who cares how much? It’ll driver her nuts. Or you can sell the judgement to a collection agency for maybe 20 cents on the dollar. Then they will go to work with what they do best-make people miserable. Or you can just drop the whole thing and send her a birthday card.
Note: No I’ve never done this or had it done to me.
This is possibly true. Going to court is expensive and could easily cost more than the damage to the vehicle. A contingency means the lawyer gets a percentage of the settlement, usually 1/3 to 1/2. It looks like the best the lawyer could do here is about $500 and they wont do much for that.
Almost all law firms will give you a free consultation. At a top firm, you will likely be seen by a recent graduate who may still be studying for the bar (aka ambulance chaser). But at least, you will have a professional assessment of your case, something your relatives, friends and responders here cannot give you.
That liability coverage seems awfully low to me. That 50k/100k isn’t going to go too far in the event of a bad accident with trauma involved.
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But small claims court only cost the initial fee. No lawyers are allowed on either side so none to pay. Each lay person simply states their case and how they have been wronged and provides whatever documentation they have. Most have limits of like $3-5000 claims so $1500 is well within it. You aren’t going to trial or the Supreme court, you only want a judge to provide a judgement. Then you can go to the Sheriff, bank, employer, collection agency, or whatever. Yeah you’ll have to pay the Sheriff too to deliver the papers.
Oh wow! Correct! I just went back up and looked at that. Not only does this policy not cover collisions or comprehensive claims, but it leaves the under-insured Noonamee extremely vulnerable.
My real (not an e-gent) agent, at a real insurance company, in a real office (that she owns) will not even write policies like that! When people want that and insist after she educates them, she tells them to go somewhere else rather than have them as a customer.
Plus, you’d never get a liability umbrella policy with being under-insured that way.
There are ways to save money and inadequate insurance is not one of them.
CSA
It was my fault for not looking at the coverage while signing the papers as it was a lot cheaper for me. I made some phones call around and all of them asked for more than $2k/ year while my vehicle is only worth $6-7k
I also looked up Texas wage garnishment law and it’s inapplicable. This makes my chance smaller 
Your rate has very little to do with your vehicles value. Mostly because you are apparently under 25 years old.
Depends on the state. Definitely not in NH. You can NOT garnish wages if their income is below a certain amount (I think it’s $50k). If they change jobs you have to find out where they are working and start the process all over again. I’m not retired yet and don’t have the time to harass someone.
Plus, there’s no “collision” coverage, whereby the insurance company potentially pays out more on a claim on a more valuable vehicle.
Collision coverage becomes more expensive on a newer/more valuable vehicle than an old, less costly to replace, vehicle.
The rate on new vehicles starts out high and then slowly comes down as the vehicles age and lose some value.
That’s just one thing I enjoy about older, “pre-owned” cars. The last brand new car I bought is our Caravan, 23 model-years (never driven in salt), ago. I still drive it daily in Florida (it lived here all of last year).
I just looked up the old Caravan coverage:
Liability: $250,000 $500,000 (as required by umbrella policy)
$0 deductible Collision ($40.13/6 mos)
$0 deductible Comprehensive (includes glass) ($41.66 / 6 mos)
Uninsured Motor Vehicle Coverage
Underinsured Motor Vehicle Coverage
Total Vehicle premium: $329.34 / 6 mos
Obviously(?), I have (over several decades) determined that brand new cars are a huge waste of money for me. UnbeIievably(?), I get the same results with used than with new. Buy either new or used and “drive it forever.” Is it just me? I just don’ t have car problems. A little maintenance & cars don’t seem to break any more.
I don’t suffer from that kind of envy that makes me need to keep up with the neighbors.
I always pay cash for cars, never a payment and enjoy excellent, but inexpensive insurance on totally reliable cars. Same insurance company for 54 years, same agent for 34 years. I am currently eyeing some pretty cool sports/classic used cars down here. I think I might get one.
CSA
The floor is 50x the federal minimum wage. Anything over that can be garnished. The kicker in NH is that you can apparently only do 2 weeks at a time. You have to keep going back to the well for court orders to garnish in an ongoing fashion…plus the point you made about finding the source of income and attaching it. We’re talking $1500 and small claims here so not likely to progress to any of this level…
Got Rear Ended In Texas
Sounds like a title to one of those country/western songs (think: All My Ex’s Live In Texas)!
Anybody got the lyrics? Any wanna-be song writers out there?
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