Expert: Charlie Barone - 11/24/2009

Question
My name is Alicia,I live in Texas. In May a guy hit my car in the parking lot of my apartments.I was not in the vehicle. My Apartment manager at that time and The Maintenance man was in the parking lot and took down the tag number it was a new vehicle. I called the police and made a report. The officer told me it would take a few days to get his information since he ran. It took me a while to file the claim since I had never had this happen to me before. Had an adjuster come look at the vehicle..cat and moused with phone calls. Now they want to refuse to pay because they cant reach the client through letters or calls...Please help what can i do the claim is still open but going to close soon! URGENT!!!!

Answer
If you are saying that the insurance adjuster was from the company that insured the person that hit your car and took off, you still have a course of action against that party. The liability carrier of an at fault party can be pretty squirrelly, as they have no legal duty to you. Their policyholder, on the other hand does and that is where you should apply pressure. As far as time constraints on the claim, you have two years in which to file the claim, so you can relax.

Evidently the police provided you the identity of the person who hit your car, so you need to send him a letter by certified mail demanding that he pay the cost of the damage repairs to your car or you will a) press criminal charges against him and b) take legal action against him personally for the cost of repair. Send a copy of the demand to his insurance company.