Expert: Richard Hixenbaugh - 6/1/2011

Question
My son lives in an apt. and was parked in the private lot.  This lot has one entrance.  He backed out of his space (this entailed backing away from the entrance so that he could drive out that same access) and put his truck in drive, but was still stationery.  He observed a vehicle enter the lot at a higher rate of speed, coming toward him.  My son's truck was approximately 40 feet from the entrance, stopped.  The other vehicle could have passed on the right of my son's truck, but was moving too fast and she (the other driver) ended up creasing the driver's side of her car on the corner of the driver's side rear bumper of my son's truck.  My son (Eric) had no damage to his vehicle.  He didn't know what to do, so he called our agent's office, and was told to call their claims department (even though our vehicle wasn't damaged).  He did so.  Claims opened a file, and apparently because Eric told them he had backed up, they determined that the accident was his fault.  When we discovered this, I objected to our agent, and she called claims and had a manager call me.  The manager said that they were going to have a claims person visit the lot with Eric and check it out.  They apparently did visit the lot, but didn't contact Eric or the other party at all (not sure what good this was to anyone).  The manager then called me back and said they had completed their investigation and were standing by their original determination that Eric was at fault.  They then paid out the full claim to the other party (who had her own insurance through a different company).  Now Eric's insurance has gone up with our current company (he had an "accident free" discount previously, and is 21 years old), and when I shopped around, I discovered that this "accident" has made it financially unwise to switch insurance carriers.  I am upset and want to ask for further action on this matter. What do you advise?

Answer
Hi Bob,

Unfortunately, when you buy insurance part of the insurance policy says that the insurance company has the right to determine fault and pay claims they THEY determine are in their best interest to pay.

You did everything you could, but ultimately it is their decision to pay the claim. The only other thing I can suggest is that you have your son take numerous pictures of the parking lot from various angles. Then have him draw a picture of the lot and the position of the cars as the accident happened. Then you can try to send that to a claims manager to see if they will remove the "at-fault" status of the claim. Ask the claims manager is there is any type of hearing that can be requested for a review of the claim.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh