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

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Where is your insurance company in all this? What do they say?

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

That's my reaction, yeah...this should be between your insurance and theirs.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

It is possible that what the opposing insurance company is trying to say is "this is not our problem." If they, just to theorize, sold this insurance policy with limitations - Insurance Company A provides insurance on company vehicles only when driven by authorized operators, and only when certain rules are adhered to (like rig/driver has to be off the road for a certain amount of time between shifts). I have no idea if that arrangement would even be legal. But it's possible that what the insurance company is saying is that they do not provide insurance for this event - unless, perhaps, this was a different truck, ma'am?

If that's the case, your insurance company is probably going to need to file suit against the trucking company. But they should still cover your loss in the meantime, no?

You really need your insurance company's involvement.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

What they're saying is "this truck couldn't have hit you, since it wasn't on the road that day, and you can't prove otherwise. Since the truck we insure didn't hit you, we are not paying." It's disingenuous in the extreme; I just need to figure out how to track down proof that the truck did, in fact, hit me.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Sadly, my insurance company's statement was "You don't have Collision Insurance, and this was a collision, so we have no further responsibility or involvement here. Have a nice day."

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

...ah. Well.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Collision insurance is freaking expensive.

And given that in 23 years of driving I have never (yet, fingers crossed, knock wood, and all that) been at fault in a car accident, I figured it was an expense we could do without.

*sigh*