Insurance question (car accident)

[Great-Kazoo]

Get a copy of the police report, and have her call her insurance and give them the info. It's their job to deal with the other company, not hers.

The correct answer.

[Dave_L]

The correct answer.

That's only correct if she had full coverage/uninsured motorist property damage.

[Danimal]

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[Danimal]

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[DHC]

It is just a real eye opener for me because there really is no real penalty for driving without insurance and the victim is just screwed over. The only way that anything will ever happen to them is if my sister wades through all the paperwork and fights for what looks like will be months all for the slight chance that she might get $1000 out of the deal if the other lady pays any of that. It seems like there is little or no accountability for anything; just give a fake policy and a fake phone number and go about your day like nothing happened.

By C.R.S. (42-4-1409) the penalty for driving without insurance is - first violation should result in a minimum penalty of $500 PLUS four points PLUS suspension of their driver's license until they show proof of insurance.

Following up with the policing agency that wrote the original ticket should result in the offending driver being penalized.

From there, your recourse for damages, including the cost of repairs PLUS any ancillary expenses (missed work, etc.) would need to go through the civil court system. Depending on the total amount of damages, the simplest and most straight-forward would be small claims court. If the damages are significant (such as in a case where medical costs due to injury), then you would file in District Court and probably seek a personal injury attorney to help you. In either case, you care correct that collection on a civil judgment can be difficult - however, be aware there are organizations who will pay you a percentage of your judgment in return for you assigning that judgment to them for collection.

IHTH - and good luck.

[JMBD2112]

The shitty part is that she is on my parents policy and they have uninsured motorist protection. But they had it only active for moms part of the policy apparently. So the insurance company just said thanks for letting us know, click. I know that in the event of under-insured drivers you run the risk of being sued for damages through civil courts and you are liable for all damages, though usually it is a waste of time if they do not have any assets to pay the debt in the first place and they just file for bankruptcy following a judgement against them. The damage is bad enough that I think that she will need to buy a new car because fixing it is going to cost more than the car will ever be worth.

I am hoping that the police officer can get a hold of the other driver and either straighten out the situation or write a citation for driving without insurance. Then if they issue that ticket she could take them to small claims court and possibly get a little money to at least pay for a car payment or two for whatever car she can get after this.

Go get a consultation with a lawyer, they can file for bankruptcy but that particular judgement cannot be dispersed. Since she cant make a "U" claim, tell her to take her policy and info she has to a lawyer.

[Irving]

The shitty part is that she is on my parents policy and they have uninsured motorist protection.

Coverages are not per driver. There are two different kinds of Uninsured Motorist coverage. Most people carry Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury, and do not realize that the coverage only applies if you were injured in an accident with a person who was not covered by insurance. Dave_L can probably tell you more about how policies are presented, but generally UMBI is presented in the policy, and you'd have to specifically exclude it if you didn't want it. UMPD (Property Damage), on the other hand, you have to go out of your way to ask for it (at least in Colorado).

More than likely the policy has UMBI, but not UMPD. Sorry to hear about this situation. Part of not carrying collision coverage is deciding if the additional premium + the collision deductible + the likely hood of the vehicle being totaled in a minor accident, is worth paying vs the value of an older car.

I was carrying full coverage on my '99 Cavalier for a while, until I realized that my deductible was $1,000 and $1,000 worth of damage would have totaled the car anyway.

[SAnd]

About 10 or 12 years ago I had a car accident in Aurora. The other guy was completely at fault and received several tickets. A few months after the accident I was contacted by some victims compensation people from the courts. I can't remember their name but they said I qualified for some sort of financial help. You might check on that. I'm sorry I can't be more specific. I am fairly sure it was through the court system. It's been long enough that my memory is faded.

I hope everything works out.

[Danimal]

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[ChadAmberg]

She says that the PD always directs her to a voice mailbox and she leaves a message, but it has been over a week and no one has called her back. Maybe next week? She already dumpped $1100 into getting the car running again because she could not wait until I had time to help her. I only have Sunday off this week.

Their insurance company has been the worst I have ever seen, and they pull that "you do all the paperwork and prove it to us, and we'll think about doing something" attitude.

This is why I question folks who buy insurance solely based on lowest price, rather than pay attention to reviews on how good they are to work with in an incident. I may pay a hundred bucks or so more a year for the insurance company I use, but it's one of the 2 that don't get failure ratings on supporting their customers.