[ZepFloyd]

tell em you're gonna take his knees out with a baseball bat...whats he gonna do? call the cops, thats exactly who you want involved anyways

j/k....never had a situation like this, dude sounds like an a-hole...hope you get everything worked out.

 

[Idsynchrono_24]

Thanks so much for the outpour of support guys. I feel I should make some things clear:

I live in the state of Missouri. I have called my insurance company in regards to the matter, and I have contacted the police. My insurance agent outright stated that there's nothing that can be done in my position on their end. I called the police and they stated that since the incident was not reported on the day of the occurrence, they can not step in and take action; the matter has become civil.

I got two estimates on the damage, $1125, and $1043. It was less than I thought, which is good. At this point, I guess I should draft up a ten day demand letter in which I expect compensation to be doled out within ten days and if he fails to agree then I can pursue legal action then I guess?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[vcoheda]

look into small claims court. can generally be handled without the assistance of a lawyer.

 

[Aimless1]

Great..Missouri is a tort state:

"The state of Missouri follows a Tort system meaning someone must be found to be at fault for causing the accident, and that person and their insurance company is responsible for all the damages. You should be aware that the details of a tort system vary from state to state."

This may not work this way in all states, but back when Michigan was a tort state you could present the claim to your insurer to pay and let them subrogate against the other party and their insurer. Rather than calling your agent, call the company's claims department directly. If they can pay the claim and subrogate, they will. If they can't pay or won't help you, ask why not. You deserve a reasonable explanation. Your agent may simply be lazy or not care about following this up for you. I believe you posted that you have AAA. In most states their claims service is pretty good.

Even though the police will not intervene, make sure you have a written report on file. Generally it is simply your version of what happened, but on an official file. If you are unsuccessful with the company's claims department, you will need this when you go to small claims court, which is a great suggestion from vcoheda. Small cost to file, no attorneys to pay, you represent yourself and if you win, the other party is responsible for your court expenses as well. I'm told this is generally a laid back affair. Pictures of the damage, his truck and the scene of the accident will also help here.

Wishing you success!

 

[Idsynchrono_24]

Thanks a lot Aimless1, that's exactly what I needed to know, I was planning on proceeding ahead with taking this to small claims, but your advice of filing a police report regardless, and calling AAA's claims department I would not have considered. I'll take of that tomorrow, and update everyone on the status of my case if it proceeds to court and its outcome.

 

[odigg]

Let me just put in a comment about filing a police report.

I'm on some car forums and on occasion some police officers can just brush of filing a report because they don't want to deal with the paperwork. Instead of calling take a walk to the police station and see if you can talk to somebody directly. If nothing else, maybe they can give you some advice. Just don't automatically believe what they say. They aren't lawyers.

If you can get a police report, great. That gives you some paperwork if you need to go to court.

If this hasn't been mentioned already, take some pictures of the damage on both cars. If he hit you and denies it in court you have proof of the damage. There will probably be some paint from your car on his, similar damage patterns, etc.

 

[krmathis]

Let the insurance company deal with it. . .