Right before the storm, someone hit my car. They did not leave a note. A witness, however, was kind enough to do so.

I've referred this to my insurance company. They have located the other owner and their insurance company. They say the other insurance company wants to inspect my car. Fine, but the other insurance company just does not respond.

What should I do? I am fairly certain that if I go to the police, the driver will get slammed with hit and run. I'd rather avoid all the hassle and just get the car fixed.

I had a situation similar to yours years ago. What worked for me was that I told the insurance co that if they didnt get busy processing my claim, my attorney would be contacting them soon. Just the threat of legal action put a fire under their butt, and I got a check from the insurance co within a week.

jesus christ, just call the fuckin cops already.....

the fucktard hit your car and drove away. Chances are theyve done it to others. make them feel the wrath of FCPD....

once the guy is charged with hit and run. tell your insurance company to fix the car and subrugate on your behalf. yes initially you will be your deductible but you will get it back.

you do not have to deal with the other insurance company.

The storm was just a week ago. I would bet that the insurance companies have been slammed with calls and claims. Even without that big storm,. it's not unusual to have to wait 5 days for them to respond and get an adjuster out.

Louie Chevrolet Wrote:
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> I had a situation similar to yours years ago. What
> worked for me was that I told the insurance co
> that if they didnt get busy processing my claim,
> my attorney would be contacting them soon. Just
> the threat of legal action put a fire under their
> butt, and I got a check from the insurance co
> within a week.


Bullshit. When I was a claims adjuster for a large insurance company, people would threaten me with lawyers ALL the time. I would tell them to go ahead. We had hundreds of attorneys on retainer to deal with "their lawyer".

One exception was large personal injury cases with the potential for six (or more) figure settlements. Insurance companies will always try to settle those cases out of court. Juries are what scare insurance companies.

As for your fender bender, you'll not be scaring them with your lawyer threats. Period.

This is why you have an insurance company: they will pay you, then they'd like to get the money back from the other company. So let THEM chase. They're good at it.

BTDT.

In the garden variety fender bender case with no personal injury, bringing in your own attorney makes little sense. Your insurance company is supposed to cover the damages above the deductible. If they recover anything from the other insurance company they will reimburse you for part or all of the deductible, and they use their own attorneys to pursue these claims. The victim can have his own attorney involved, but that will not increase the damages the victim receives, and the victim pays for his own attorney.

Where the potential property damage claims are very large, or where there is the potential for punitive damages, bringing in a smart outside attorney can shake things up. If an insurance company has the opportunity to settle a case for policy limits or actual damages and fails to do so, it opens itself up to a claim for bad faith.

OP you fucked up.

You should have left it an unknown hit and run. That would be an uninsured motorist claim which has a $200 deductible on most policies. If the guilty party has been identified and has insurance you are stuck with it being covered under collision if the guilty parties insurance is dicking around and you may have a big deductible. I have $1000 ded for collision.

Legal Warning Wrote:
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>
>
> Where the potential property damage claims are
> very large, or where there is the potential for
> punitive damages, bringing in a smart outside
> attorney can shake things up. If an insurance
> company has the opportunity to settle a case for
> policy limits or actual damages and fails to do
> so, it opens itself up to a claim for bad faith.

(1) Insurance policies do not pay punitive damages. Only compensatory.
(2) Bad faith only applies to 1st party claimants. Not 3rd party property damage or BI

Quit spewing about a subject you don't know shit about.

This is how it works.

Victim's attorney goes to insurance company and says he has a claim for $20,000 in actual property damages and a possible claim for punitive damages. Under the facts liability is clear and the damages are the actual repair costs. The attorney offers to waive the punitive damage claim and settle for actual property damages. The insurance company refuses. The case goes to trial and the victim gets an award of $20,000 in actual damages which the insurance company pays and $20,000 in punitives which the insurance company expects the insured defendant to pay.

At this point one of two things happens. Either the insured defendant sues his own insurance company for bad faith, or the insured defendant assigns his bad faith claim to the victim in lieu of having to pay that $20,000. When the lawsuit is filed the insurance company defends on the grounds that the policy excludes punitive damages. The facts show that the insurance company could have settled the claim within policy limits without having to pay punitives, so this defense is overruled. The case goes to the jury on the question of whether the insurance company's refusal to settle for actual property damages was in good faith. The evidence the court gets to consider consists not only of the facts of the underlying accident, but also the expert witness who says the liability was clear, and a large volume of internal information.

If this doesn't sound familiar, then you don't know what you are talking about.

Fuck the hit and run driver. Call the cops, better yet go to the station so they can fill out the report without having to waste time coming to you.

Only a pansy ass liberal fuck would worry about getting a shitty low life hit and run driver in trouble.