[positronic_woman]

Hello! I am hoping someone can help me with this. My husband was in a car accident where he rearended a woman's vehicle while entering a highway. The woman went to the hospital. My husband was not injured but both cars received bad damage. We were surprised to find out that we did not have coverage at the time of the accident and called the insurance which claims we were sent cancelation notification. We never received notification and when asked they stated it was sent to our old address although they were notified of our change of address a year ago! My husband has them investigating what happened and why we did not know our insurance had been canceled. My question is how bad is this situation if the insurance does not fix this issue and cover the accident? We are located in central New Jersey. Thanks, Wendy

[excon]

Hello pos:

Your insurance company won't cover anything, so you're going to have to. Unfortunately, you're going to pay for the damage to their car, her medical bills, and you'll probably have to pay her for her pain and suffering.

It could have been worse.

excon

PS> I know you think the insurance company is somehow responsible for letting you know that your insurance lapsed, but they're not. You're responsible for your own purchases.

[Fr_Chuck]

It is not bad at all as long as you can write a check to the lady you hurt to pay for her hospital bills, and to fix her car.

You did not say if the police were called. But if you get charged with no insruance he can get his licensed suspended ( no driving) until all of this ladies damages are paid,

Then if this lady has full coverage insurance, her insurance will pay for her damges and then sue you in court. They will get a judgement, attach all the money you have in the bank, and garnish your husbands pay for about 25 percent of the pay till all of the damges are paid back.

If this lady did not have full coverage, she is out a car, no way to get around till you pay for a new one for her. If she has a lot of hospital bills and no insurance to pay for them, her hospital will sue her, and do all those nasty things to her, which will look really bad on you when she takes you to court.

So just get that check book out and start writing her 1000's dollars checks till your hand gets tired and you will be OK.

So how bad, your husband will lose his drivers license, and lose 25 percent of his pay till all this is paid back. Guess that makes if fairly bad.

[ScottGem]

I'm going to take a different outlook here. If your insurance company failed to inform you about the cancellation, thereby not giving you the opportunity to obtain new coverage, they might have some liability. It's a long shot, but it might work. So you really need to see an attorney.

A lot depends on when the policy was cancelled and when you should have been billed. For example; if the accident occurred on 4/10 and the policy was cancelled on 2/10 and you should have recevied a bill on 3/10, then you should have wondered where the bill was. However, if the timing was such that you wouldn't have expected a bill yet, then you might have a case.

[RichardBondMan]

I write 10 / 20 auto polices per day and most states (not sure about JN law where you are) require that you be given 10 days advance written Notice of Intent to Cancel. The "billing" or "bill" is irellevant as it's not the failure to bill you, it's perhaps their falure to notify you of their intent to cancel for nonpayment of premium.. For example, my company does not send a billing as we provide the insured with payment coupons for each monthly installment due at the time of purchase of the insurance. However, we must comply with the statute of each state we operate in and those states all require that we send Notice of Cancellaton to the current address as shown on the poliicy. It's the insured's reponsibility to keep their address current. Also when you effect a change of address, you should ask for and receive written proof that the insurance company has changed your address (A simple telephone call to the insurance company without any supporting written evidence of change is not sufficient if this were my personal insurance). Nor would the fact that the insurance company may have recorded my tel call to them changing the address - I would want some written proof that my address had been changed). Now should the insurance company have failed in to send the Notice of Canc to your last addr and you can prove they also failed to change your address, then you perhaps have some recourse and coverage. I would search my records for written proof of other proof that you in fact notified them of your address. If you called them rather than placed the addr change in writing, don't give up. Ask them if they recorded the tel call you made changing your address. If so, have them playback the recording for you to listen to.

[positronic_woman]

Hello! I am hoping someone can help me with this. My husband was in a car accident where he rearended a woman's vehicle while entering a highway. The woman went to the hospital. my husband was not injured but both cars recieved bad damage. We were surprised to find out that we did not have coverage at the time of the accident and called the insurance which claims we were sent cancelation notification. We never recieved notification and when asked they stated it was sent to our old address although they were notified of our change of address a year ago! My husband has them investigating what happened and why we did not know our insurance had been canceled. My question is how bad is this situation if the insurance does not fix this issue and cover the accident? We are located in central New Jersey. Thanks, Wendy

They are claiming our insurance was canceled last June yet we have insurance cards that say the policy was up for renewal in January of this year. Now we did not realize this until the day of the accident as we thought we had received the new card at that time. Of course we were distracted at that time as I was in and out of the hospital for a troublesome pregnancy and gave birth January 31st. So the day after the accident when my husband called to report it and let them know that we had just realized we didn't get our new cards yet we were truly shocked when they said it was cancelled. The last thing we received from the insurance was the renewed cards in June of last year. I am just so confused and stressed out right now. We have called an attorny and left our name and should hear back from them tomorrow. Thanks for all the insight.

[Fr_Chuck]

Why do they claim they were cancelled, driving record or non payment.

For example I get my insurance cards with a date for ahead but then I have to make payments on the insurance, if I fail to make the payments I would get cancelled. If they cancelled you for non payment, then merely providing proof that you paid the insurance premium would be all you havve to do. But yes, I will confess this is a very serious situation and enough to be stresse over and you do need an attorney for varioius reasons

[ScottGem]

They are claiming our insurance was canceled last June yet we have insurance cards that say the policy was up for renewal in January of this year.

My insurance cards state the coverage period which is 6 months. So if you have a card that says you were covered to January, that may be binding on them. However, if you have a 6 month policy and you didn't receive insurance cards for the second half of last year, you are probably out of luck.

[RichardBondMan]

I sell auto policies, do not send a bill, and if you fail to pay one of the montly installments within 10 days after it's due the policy cancels. By law, I must give Ins ID cards to carry in your vehicle that shows certain information required by law, one of which is the effective and expiration dates. Although the pol may be canceled for non pay of one of the installments midterm, and although you may have in your possession an ID card that states the pol expires some months later, there is no coverage if you failed to pay a montly installment.