So a few weeks back I got a phone call from my wife that she was just rear-ended by a guy, and then when she pulled over to exchange information the guy just drove away! Fortunately, she wasn't hurt and there wasn't too much damage, so she was able to jump back in the van call 9-1-1, and then catch up with the guy and get his license plate #. She then drove home and waited for the police to arrive.
Officer shows up and takes her statement, then she goes back to her cruiser and found all the information about the guy from his license plate. Turns out he lives 2 blocks away from us. So the officer drives over to his place and gets his insurance info and writes him a ticket, then comes back and gives us the information.
My wife contacted our insurance company and started a claim. She was told that we could do one of two things: 1. Go and get the damage fixed, pay for it ourselves, and then we'd be reimbursed once it went through insurance, or 2. Wait for this guy to make a statement to his insurance company, and then once that all goes through, go and get the damage fixed on his insurance companies dime. BUT, "he has up to one year".
Is this normal? I'm waiting for our insurance agent to call me back as we speak, but i'm wondering why we have to wait for this guy to make a statement. He rear-ended my wife, and then left the scene, and was subsequently found and charged by the police within ~1 hour. Is the fact that he was charged not enough to prove fault? Or is it something else that we're waiting for... doesn't make much sense to me.