Legal Advice Needed

[ladysprite]

Remember last month, when I was rear-ended by a semi?

It's turned into a big fat hairy mess.

In specific, there's over $3000 of damage to my car.  And the insurance company for the driver who hit me is refusing to cover any of it, because apparently the truck that hit me wasn't supposed to be on the road that day.

Their statement is that, according to company records, that truck was supposed to be parked in the Cape all day.  And the guy who was driving it didn't work for the company who leased it.  So the insurance company's claim is that, since that truck was supposedly in a parking lot at the other end of the state, it must not have hit me, and they're not responsible for paying anything.  They're claiming that the license plate on the accident report was a typo.

Unfortunately, while I took pictures of *my* car after the accident, I didn't take a picture of the truck that hit me.  And while I can look up the guy who hit me, I doubt he's going to be very helpful and supportive, and come up and vouch for the fact that, yes, he rear-ended two cars on the highway in a truck that wasn't his that he wasn't legally driving.

So.... any advice?  How can I go about proving that yes, this is the truck that hit me?  I really don't care who pays for the repairs, but I can't exactly afford it out of pocket right now.  And I'm guessing this is going to complicate any payment for the medical bills, given that I wound up at Urgent Care after the accident.  What are my recourses in a situation like this?

Please, and thank you, and all of that....

Comments

[warinbear.livejournal.com]

My first thought was 'with that much damage, there should have been a police report,' which you confirmed. I don't know much about such reports in general or your state's procedures in particular, but I'd expect there to be more information identifying the vehicles involved than just the license plates, such as the VINs. On a related note, quite aside from the fact that the insurance company is claiming that an official state document is wrong -- something not likely to endear them to the officials who create and maintain such documents -- there's the fact that a lot of companies that operate semis keep real-time GPS records of their actual location, and there's a big difference between a) 'our records say it should have been over there' and b) 'our records say it was over there.'

My second thought was 'what has your insurance company said about the matter?' I haven't had to file a claim since moving, but every State Farm office I've dealt with in the past has been willing to go to bat for me in a dispute. I don't think it ever had anything to do with what kind of insurance I had (aside from the carrier, obviously), although I could be wrong. IMO, it's more likely to be a question of how long I have stayed with the same carrier.

I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only person who had these thoughts. I wish for you success in your struggle.

<sits back down, muttering unpleasantly about a company that seems to be defending inappropriate behavior in order to save a buck>