Crash w/o Collision

[derap34]

Hey guys, recently I got into a car crash on glenmore TR heading towards 84th without having collision on my car. A semi hit me, luckily nobody was hurt!!! Oh and it wasnt my fault.

Anyways, since I dont have collision I had to file my claim through his insurance company. His insurance company wanted me to get some appraisals on the ammount of damages done and fax it to them. So I called my insurance company (TD Bank) and asked if it was really up to me to do this or not.
They said that I didnt have to get any estimates on the damages done and to call his insurance company and let them know that I got the car towed to my home now if they wanted to have someone do non... mm... I think he called it, non biased appraisal.


I dont know the laws/regulations/time frames/procedures etc of a car crash and not sure if I am handling this correctly.
Has anyone been through this before and knows if there is anything else I should be doing?
Should I get some appraisals and try to fax it to their insurance company? or just leave it be and let the insurance companys handle it?

[AllGoNoShow]

Your doing it correctly. If someone hit you and it was their fault *police statement not personal* then their insurance company has to do the work and deal with fixing it as their client is the one at fault.

I am not sure what to do about the appraisal part though as I just got to drive to the shop to get some pictures and a quote sent off, but you can't exactly drive tot he shop so they have to send someone out if I remeber right.

Give them a call and tell them its at your house and to send someone out for appraisal since you are unable to move the car.

[Zero102]

If you can't drive the car, then they either have to send somebody out to appraise both the vehicle and the damage (to determine if it is a write-off), or pay to have it towed to various shops for estimates on the damage.
It is not your responsibility to pay for this part. However, if the car is driveable, you are expected to drive it to a couple repair places to get estimates on the damage.
Next step is to settle up personal injuries with them.

[lastprodigy]

Yeah if you are not at fault whether you have collision coverage or not is irrelevant.

[Zero102]

^^^
Actually, it's very relevant.
If he had collision coverage, he calls his insurance company, they fix the car, then pursue the other insurance company. Very little hassle (in general). Since he doesn't, it's going to be a pretty good fight, it usually is.

[derap34]

Well currently as far as I know, the other insurance company has not accepted liability yet. Possibly because in the police report they didnt state who was at fault.
Does this mean all I can do is wait untill the investigation goes through trusting there even is going to be an investigation?

There... will... be an investigation... right?



It's hard not knowing whats going on. :dunno:

[Zero102]

No investigation... I have bad news for you. It's pretty much entirely on your shoulders to fight it out.
For the most part insurance companies are pretty reasonable, at least when you consider just how bad they can be.
There will be a big typed police report. You can get a copy, but there is a fee associated ($50?...), you have to go downtown to get it, or I think you can request it be sent to a local department, I am not 100% sure, the only time I needed one, my lawyer got a copy.
If the other insurance company is being very stubborn, you may need to get a copy of this report.
Were you rear-ended? If so, expect an easy battle. Unless the other driver is claiming you did something really crazy, they should accept liability rather easily.
At this point, you have to pursue the other insurance company. I do not know exactly what point you are at, but the process is basically you call them, tell them that you would like to make a claim, they assign an adjuster, you get estimates on the damage (if the vehicle is driveable, otherwise they have to arrange the estimates and transportation for your vehicle if required), then the real fighting begins. If the estimates sound too high to them, they can make things really difficult. I have not yet run into this problem, but I've never had more than ~$1500 in damage to a vehicle I was driving. I'd imagine if the bill is much higher, they begin to get pretty stubborn. From there, if you desire it's time to argue for personal injuries. Settle the damages first, since they are cut and dry. Either something is broken/bent or it isn't. As far as injuries go, they can be pretty ugly.
If all of this sounds like it's too much to handle, then give a lawyer a call. If you do, it's as simple as having a meeting with them, occasionally signing forms, and waiting.
In the case of one of my accidents, I settled damages with the other insurance company so that I could get my car back on the road (in a safe condition), then handed my injury claim over to a lawyer. This gave me a vehicle as soon as possible, and we're working on fair compensation for my injuries, since I have more time to wait for that.

[derap34]

How much does it usually cost to get a lawyer to handle this for me?

What pay scale do you need to qualify for a free lawyer?



Luckily everyone is ok so I wont need to claim anything that has to do with physical injuries. I have already called the insurance company and got the car towed to my home. At first he asked me to get some estimates done on the damages, than I told him the car isnt driveable.
He just said, "oh.. well it sounds like it will be a writeoff than, try to get some estimates done and some pictures and fax them to me"

I called back a day later and said the car was towed to my home if they needed to do any estimates on it.
A friend of mine said that the car could be fixed for like 4000 bux so in this case it would just be easier to write it off and get a new car.

It looks to me like if the plastic bumpers were ducktaped off of the tires, the front right and rear right lights were fixed and I got a new passanger side mirror put in that it would be driveable. Not sure though..

If they accepted liability in the end, would my lawyer fees go over to them since any costs directly created by this accident have to be paid by the liable insurance company.

[Zero102]

Hmm, if you are not making an injury claim, then you will have a hard time finding a lawyer. They don't work for free, and for the most part they work on a contingency basis. Meaning they take a percentage of your settlement in compensation. This works fine for injury claims, as they simply settle higher, but for damages this isn't a good idea, as you will lose this way.
Since you aren't looking to mak e an injury claim, they will probably be pretty reasonable dealing with you. It might be worthwhile to explain to them that you aren't feeling terribly hurt as a result of it, and the main thing you want is your car fixed/replaced.
Every accident I've been in, the other insurance company has offered to pay the repair bill within the first week or two if I don't make an injury claim.
So really it's a good news/bad news situation. Unless you like paying out of pocket and not getting re-imbursed you don't get a lawyer, but you probably don't need one.
This is compounded if the other driver is admitting liability, and this should settle pretty easily.

I forgot about taking pictures.... lots of body shops will give you a low-end quote from pictures. That is, they will give you a minimum repair bill since they can't see the damage first-hand. These are a very helpful first step in deciding if your car is a write-off. You might as well take some pics with a digital camera, then call a few body shops and ask if they can/will give you an estimate from pictures.

I have no idea what car you drive, but at $4k worth of damage, for anything more than 5 or 6 years old (unless it's a rare car) it' s probably a write-off. After the damage is 75% of the vehicle's value or more, they can decide to simply buy the vehicle from you.
If they do this, they will usually offer it to you as a buy-back, for a greatly reduced price. They aren't in the business of fixing cars, simply insuring them. All they will do is sell it at an auction, and you buying it back saves them trouble. For the most part, they will offer it back to you at 10% of what they paid you for it. What they don't mention is that you normally get GST ontop of their payment to you, and you will not get the GST if you buy it back, so really it costs you 17%. IMO it's almost always worth it, but about 75% of the time or more it will come back to you with a salvage title, so most people do this just to part the car out.

I think I got a little side-tracked there, but hopefully I have told you what you would like to know.