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Another example as to why these Minimum Coverage Policies need to be abolished.
As for this situation, Abdull . . . your only recourse is Small Claims Court, however, this may come back to "bite you in the butt" since you were driving illegally . . . NO INSURANCE.
Regardless of fault and depending on the circumstances, you should have at least been cited and in many areas you would and definitely should have been arrested.
the ticket of uninsured motorist is 150$
and the market value of the car is 12,000$
there is a lot of difference
Then you take the $10,000. Then you pay the ticket for no insurance. Next, your drivers licensee needs to be suspended for not maintaining financial responsibility.
Another example as to why these Minimum Coverage Policies need to be abolished.
As for this situation, Abdull . . . your only recourse is Small Claims Court, however, this may come back to "bite you in the butt" since you were driving illegally . . . NO INSURANCE.
Regardless of fault and depending on the circumstances, you should have at least been cited and in many areas you would and definitely should have been arrested.
Good Luck
Insurance companies would much much rather sell a full value policy, they make their profits on sales volume.
The reason there are minimum policies are because if you required more insurance, there would just be more people like Abdull driving around without insurance.
Same exact reason why risk pool policies for people that have had lots of accidents, duis etc are subsidized....because at least then they are paying something into the system as opposed to going uninsured.
The other driver had $10,000 in insurance. You cannot force the insurance company to put out more than $10,000 under any circumstance.* Not in court, not in any other manner. Your sole remedy for the balance is against the other driver. He or she bought only $10,000 worth of liability insurance. You can hardly fault them for that choice since you bought no insurance. If they had been like you, your insurance recovery would be $0. Once $10,000 is spent on anything, the insurance company is done. You can sue the other driver for the shortfall in small claims court, suing the insurance company would be pointless.
In fact you should sue the other driver for the balance. Maybe they will learn a lesson about being underinsured. Maybe you will too.
You should have a minimum of $100,000/$300,000 in liability coverage. It makes sense to have excess insurance coverage of at least $1 million as well. $5 million is better. Excess coverage is very inexpensive. If you cause injury to a person, that minimum liability coverage will be gone in a flash. What if you hit a bus full of children or a guy driving an expense vehicle, how will you pay for the damage? You can end up making payments for the rest of your life.
*The exception is where the insurance company mismanages that handling of your vehicle. For example if they left it outside with windows open and made the damage worse (and the car was not otherwise a total loss already); or they caused damage to things on or in the vehicle that would not otherwise be insured. I did have that very thing happen. I was injured in an accident and taken to the hospital. The insurance company decided the vehicle was totaled and had it towed to a scrap yard and left it there with windows and moonroof open. When I was released form the hospital, they would not tell me where the vehicle was. Eventually I tracked it down and found it partly full of water. There were valuable electronics int he vehicle that were ruined by the rain. The electronics were worth a lot more than the vehicle and a lot more than the insurance limits. However since the insurance company negligence caused the loss rather than the other driver's negligence, they were liable beyond the policy limits. But that kind of thing almost never happens. Plus I have a very good lawyer.
Last edited by BrendanSWM; 09-22-2014 at 09:35 AM..
I've got an accident in Arizona and was the insurance company of the person who bumped my car is Geico insurance.
After that his insurance told me that they will pay the market value of my car because it will not be fixed anymore. so they gave me the market value with 12,000$ ... and this price is ok for me.
but after few days they text me about the price and said :
sir,
I was reviewing the claim, and it looks like the total coverage that we have on the policy to pay for your property damage is $10,000. This means that while I do agree that the value of the vehicle is higher, the most we can pay to settle the property damage in this claim is $10,000. I do apologize for not notifying you earlier about this. I will notify the office to contact you as far as options for handling this claim further.
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that all what they said to me ... even the 10,000 they said we will make it 9700$ because we kept ur car in a garage.
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so are they doing there job in a right way or they trying to steal me ???
i need ur help about what i should do ???
even my car i can not found it now less than 14,000$ in the market
The short version is that you should take the $10,000 and feel lucky you are even getting that.
The long version is this:
1. An insurance company is not obligated to pay more for your car than its property damage liability limits. I believe the insurance company adjuster when he writes a letter saying that the limits of that coverage are $10,000.00.
2. You cannot take the $10,000 and sue the other driver for the difference. The insurance company will refuse to tender you the $10,000 unless you are willing to sign a release, that states that their driver is not obligated to pay anything further.
3. This is one reason why people should obey the law and maintain car insurance at all times. There is no guaranty that just because some other fool caused an accident that he/she has enough insurance to pay for all your losses. If you investigate the car insurance thing at all, you'd realize there are all types of coverage that exist to deal with either uninsured drivers who cause accidents or underinsured drivers.
4. Your state law apparently allows drivers to maintain minimum limits of coverage which include only $10,000 in property damage liability coverage. In an ideal world, the state would require drivers to have more coverage than this. However, you have already demonstrated the problem. You have violated your state law by driving without any insurance at all. So, how we can mandate that drivers take on even more insurance, when you didn't have any at all in force on the day of the accident?
5. As an attorney, I represent many people involved in accidents that produce bodily injuries. When I learn that the other driver was uninsured, I get pretty p***ed off. Honestly, if I had my way, I'd put every uninsured driver who caused an accident in jail to serve at least a short sentence. Maybe than people would start realizing that having car insurance is a serious matter and not a joke.
Sorry, if you aren't getting the answers or the sympathy you want. You screwed up guy. You can try to tell yourself that its all the other driver's fault, but the reality is that accidents are fairly commonplace. You should know that and obey your state's insurance and financial responsibility laws.
Last edited by markg91359; 09-22-2014 at 12:30 PM..
if you were driving without insurance be glad nobody is looking into that or you might get nothing
^^Thinking the same thing. If the insurance company finds out you were not insured they may come back to you saying the accident would not have happened if your were not illegally on the road.
^^Thinking the same thing. If the insurance company finds out you were not insured they may come back to you saying the accident would not have happened if your were not illegally Non the road.
No they won't. Despite the lack of insurance, their driver caused damages. They will still pay what they are liable for. The person without insurance should be ticketed and have to appear in court to answer the charges. That is what happened in my situation.
(I drove without insurance one time, and an older guy hit my car. 100% his fault. They paid without question. This was 22 years ago, but not much has changed in how they handle this. I ended up with a revoked license, super expensive insurance, and community service. I have never again driven anywhere without coverage.)
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
24,274 posts, read 25,774,010 times
Reputation: 59461
Me thinks the OP is too embarrassed to come back and respond.
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