Ask Me Help Desk - Minor Auto Accident

Hello,

I live in California and my sister was involved in an auto accident. No police report filed, both parties were not injuried, no damages to my car, a small dent on the other car involved. Accident occurred in a mall parking lot, they backed into each other. No witnesses.

The other driver refused to provide us with their insurance info and stated they will contact a personal lawyer to sue us, if we report the incident to our insurance company. They wanted us to pay them cash for the incident, even though it is undetermined who is at fault.

We filed the claim with our insurance company, and once the other party found out, they contacted their personal lawyer. They still refuse to give us their insurance info and is not responding as of yet. My insurance company is also being unresponsive to my questions and concerns. Can the other party legally claim injuries from this accident? Can the other party and their lawyer legally not respond to our request for their insurance information?

Thank you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by th3jennp

Hello,

I live in California and my sister was involved in an auto accident. No police report filed, both parties were not injuried, no damages to my car, a small dent on the other car involved. Accident occured in a mall parking lot, they backed into each other. No witnesses.

The other driver refused to provide us with their insurance info and stated they will contact a personal lawyer to sue us, if we report the incident to our insurance company. They wanted us to pay them cash for the incident, even tho it is undetermined who is at fault.

We filed the claim with our insurance company, and once the other party found out, they contacted their personal lawyer. They still refuse to give us their insurance info and is not responding as of yet. My insurance company is also being unresponsive to my questions and concerns. Can the other party legally claim injuries from this accident? Can the other party and their lawyer legally not respond to our request for their insurance information?

Thank you.

Lots of questions raised, but they can be answered or put to the side easily by just contacting your insurance company, letting them know exactly what happened, cooperating with them by referring any further questions, tel calls you may receive directly to them, your insurance company. As a matter of fact, your insurance company probably prefers it that way, refer EVERYTHING to them and let them handle it.

Thanks for the response RichardBondMan. I guess my main problem is that I think the claim rep assigned to me is an idiot and not treating this seriously. Do I need to file a DMV Form SR-1 just to have on record?

Quote:

Originally Posted by th3jennp

Hello,

I live in California and my sister was involved in an auto accident. No police report filed, both parties were not injuried, no damages to my car, a small dent on the other car involved. Accident occured in a mall parking lot, they backed into each other. No witnesses.

The other driver refused to provide us with their insurance info and stated they will contact a personal lawyer to sue us, if we report the incident to our insurance company. They wanted us to pay them cash for the incident, even tho it is undetermined who is at fault.

We filed the claim with our insurance company, and once the other party found out, they contacted their personal lawyer. They still refuse to give us their insurance info and is not responding as of yet. My insurance company is also being unresponsive to my questions and concerns. Can the other party legally claim injuries from this accident? Can the other party and their lawyer legally not respond to our request for their insurance information?

Thank you.

I live in Alabama and the law here is that if there are any injuries or property damage exceeds $250. Then one must file a report with the DMV in Alabama. I would check with CA and probably file one to make sure, they may claim injuries, or lots of damage, but check with your agent not the insurance adjustor on this issue of what and whether to file the Ca form. No excuse for the adjustor giving you the impression he's not treating this seriosly but in the scheme of things, really it doesn't sound like a serious accident. Just let them handle it, if they don't want to take it seriosly then it's their problem, not yours, just report it like you did, it's their cup of tea now ! That's one of the reasons you bought insurance, to shift the risk to an insurance company who is in the business of taking risks.

Ok, of course the other side can claim they are disabled for life and that they have 100,000 damage to their auto, Proving it will be the harder issue, but there are many people who look for targets to bump into just to file claims, since they know often insurance companies will settle small claims instead of going to court.

And no there is no law that states they have to inform you of their insurance, they don't have to tell your insurance company who their insurance is if they don't want to. ( odds are they don't have any)
They would have been required to funish the police that info if you had called them to the scene.

They may sue you if they wish, in which your insurance company will normally deal with it. Or you can sue them, you can in discovery of evidence if you sue them who the insurance is.

And of course once they found out you had insurance, you were a target for them to file a law suit

You best bet, have no personal contact with these people at all, allow only your insurance company to contact and deal with them.

It appears for some reason you are personally talking to these people, I have no idea why

I'm trying to avoid personal contact with these people actually. They just keep calling and harassing me, so I filed a police report, and after that they stopped calling. But I'll take the advice and let my insurance company handle it. That is what I'm paying them for.

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by th3jennp

Hello,

I live in California and my sister was involved in an auto accident. No police report filed, both parties were not injuried, no damages to my car, a small dent on the other car involved. Accident occured in a mall parking lot, they backed into each other. No witnesses.

The other driver refused to provide us with their insurance info and stated they will contact a personal lawyer to sue us, if we report the incident to our insurance company. They wanted us to pay them cash for the incident, even tho it is undetermined who is at fault.

We filed the claim with our insurance company, and once the other party found out, they contacted their personal lawyer. They still refuse to give us their insurance info and is not responding as of yet. My insurance company is also being unresponsive to my questions and concerns. Can the other party legally claim injuries from this accident? Can the other party and their lawyer legally not respond to our request for their insurance information?

Thank you.

Get a copy of the police report, it will usually have an insurance code on it that will tell you who their insurance company is.

Why do you need to know their insurance information in the first place? If there were no injuries, and little damage, you don't need it.