Expert: Ron Cercone - 2/10/2012

Question
i was recently in a car accident, after the insurance company State Farm(which both of us had) determined i was at fault they promply told me i did not have a current policy with them. This came as a complete shock to me as i believed i had taken all the nessasery step; i had paid in full for the year, signed all the paperwork and of coarse had my proof of insurance from them. There reason for not having a current policy was the it was cancelled due to me not having signed two papers, they also claimed that they had sent me a notice of cancellation and a refund check. i called my representative and it came as a complete surprise to her too. she told me she had never received a notice of any of the missed signatures or cancellation. she  quickly e-mailed me the papers and i sent her the signed papers but by that time it was too  late. She recommended that i fight against them on account that the did not give notice to ether of us. so my question is what if any, are the laws pertaining to notices that insurance companies have to give when canceling policies? also would the insurance company have to give a notice to the loan company that i am still paying for the car? its been about a month since the accident and two weeks since they gave me the official notice saying they will not cover the car i cant decided my next move. do i just move on and pay for the damages to my car or do i try and take on my insurance in court and risk losing and paying for a expensive lawyer and being back at square one? please help.

Answer
Caleb,

No competent lawyer is going to take your case on contingency unless your car is worth over $100,000.00. And most lawyers will want a retainer in the thousands of dollars and charge you $2-300.00/hr if you hire on an hourly basis. And most lawyers will have no idea of how to handle this without charging you to learn - on your dime. And you will need more proof than your allegation of non receipt if you go into small claims court.

Yes, the insurer should have sent a notice to the leinholder as well. But that only covers the loan amount still owing, IF the leinholder was covered.

You can get some real good info on how to handle this from the UClaim.com eBook on Denied Auto Claims. You will also get free some consultation with the author. There is to much information to put in a pargraph here to answer your question.

Ron Cercone
http://www.uclaim.com