Hello,
I was recently involved in an auto accident and got rear ended recently by a person who agreed on his fault. No police complaint was made. I collected his insurance info and started a claim. However, when my insurance arbiter contacted his insurance company, they started an internal enquiry to check whether their customer had coverage at time of accident. The findings of the enquiry were that their customer did not renew his policy on time, and hence was uninsured at time of accident. As a result, I receive monetary damages of about $4000 from my insurance company and I had to pay a $500 deductible. I also incurred out-of-pocket expenses for $1000 on rental vehicle. I was told by a colleague at work that victims of uninsured motorists' accidents in California can claim for complete damage ($4500 in this case) from the uninsured motorist at fault, in addition to the money received from my own insurance. Is there a law which states such? How can I go about collecting this money from the uninsured party? I have tried several times to contact this person by phone without success.
Please advice. Many thanks in advance.

You can certainly sue him for any out of pocket expenses you incurred. If your insurance wants to sue him for the damages they paid out, that's up to them. You can't collect twice. If you did sue for the total and collected, then you would have to reimburse the insurance company.

But, while you can probably win a judgement against him, you will then have to collect on it. And a guy who let his insurance lapse is liable to be a hard one to collect from.

Hello g:

You'll have to sue them in small claims court. Let's hope your jurisdiction allows for a claim as high as $4500. Some small claims court have that high a limit, and I would expect California to be one of the states.

You don't need to cite a law. He damaged you. You're trying to collect. That's "tort" law.

Once you win, if you do, then you need to collect. That's not going to be easy either. Nobody said that you're guaranteed to get your money.

excon

Hi

Not sure how it works over in the states, but over here in the UK we have the "MIB" (and no, it's not that dodgy film which starred Will Smith!! ) It stands for "Motorists Insurance Bureau" Basically, if you are hit by an uninsured driver, the government pay out... which obviously has a knock on effect with our insurance policies as that's why they go up!

Not sure it you have anythign similar, but maybe your insurance company could advise you if so!

Good luck

In every State I am familiar with you cannot "double dip." If you WOULD collect twice (the insurance company already having paid you once) you would have to reimburse your company - just as they expected to be reimbursed by the other driver's company. If your colleague were correct I would think the insurance company would REQUIRE you to file for the complete damage and reimburse them.

As far as I know un/under insured simply takes the claim up to YOUR policy limits for personal injury. What does your company say, assuming you carry un/under insured insurance? (I recently got a newsletter which said that 45% of the drivers in California are uninsured and that Agents in California are pretty much insisting everyone carry un/under insured coverage.)

You would have to sue the other party in Small Claims for all of your out-of-pocket and, perhaps, the portion that your insurance company paid you - BUT you would then have to reimburse your insurance company. The balance, of course, would be yours.

Has someone verified in writing that the other party did NOT renew in time? I have seen companies which actually received the payment and/or renewal and hadn't posted it yet and suddenly said the person was not insured.

My feeling is with no insurance, even if you get a Judgment in Small Claims Court I don't know if you'll ever get paid.

Thank you all for your quick responses. Appreciate you time.
Learnt some facts here:
1. I cannot "double dip" amd claim full amount; I am aware that my insurance company will also be trying to get the money out of the uninsured motorist.
2. My best bet at this point seems to be either a direct settlement with the other party, or small claims court (CA small claims court has a limit of $7000). I think I will go down this route and claim, as a minimum, the $500 deductible and $1000 spent out-of-pocket.

Thank you again. I like this message baord!

I think you've made a wise choice - when file make sure you take everything into account without appearing to nickel and dime the other party. Make sure you have added sales tax into the cost of the rental, any other expenses. You should be made whole and shouldn't have to lose any money!

Also remember to include the loss of time from work, so much per hour for all of it , including time in court :::: F.B.E.:) :) :)

The one thing that I have learned from watching People's Court is that you can't be compensated for the time off from work to go to court. That's just the cost of suing.

Which always makes it interesting when someone who gets paid $20/hour decides to file a lawsuit because someone stiffed him for $9.50. It's the principle of the thing!

I am not aware of any State that reimburses for your time spent in preparing for a lawsuit or appearing in Court - this is a common fallacy but I have never seen compensation for this.

The Court will often reimburse for time getting a rental car, etc. if it's reasonable.