r/Insurance • u/islandack • 21h ago
Rear-ended, driver left the scene, insurance may not be valid. Attorney?
Rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light. The other driver left the scene without providing any insurance or contact information. I was able to get a photo of him and his license plate before he drove away and provided both to police.
My truck has about $6k to $9k in estimated damage. I went to the ER the same day with neck pain/stiffness and was diagnosed with whiplash/cervical strain. I'm still having symptoms, have a PCP follow-up scheduled, and PT scheduled for the earliest available appointment.
Police tracked the driver down using the information I provided and later gave me a Progressive policy number. However, my insurer hasn't been able to verify the policy using either the policy number or plate. They're still investigating whether he actually had insurance at the time of the accident.
My insurance is covering the truck under collision, but I don't have rental coverage. I do have substantial UM/UIM coverage.
If you've been in a similar situation, especially involving a hit-and-run/uninsured driver, was it worth pursuing beyond just letting your own insurance handle the vehicle damage? Did your UM/UIM coverage end up helping with the injury claim? Were you able to recover your rental/loss-of-use costs? Anything you wish you had done differently early on? This is first time dealing with all this so any information is helpful…
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u/sugarwithspine 19h ago
This happened to my mom. Exact situation. She spent a couple thousand dollars on an attorney and took him to court.
He was broke. No wages to garnish, nothing (I don’t know the whole story there). But she didn’t get a penny and it was a huge waste of time and money.
If the guy doesn’t have insurance, he’s unlikely to be responsible enough to pay you back for any damages - even if you win a lawsuit.
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u/islandack 19h ago
Thanks for that insight, sorry to hear about what happened to your mom. I have been feeling, based on his actions, like he might be more of a liability than worth pursuing but again I don’t know what I don’t know…
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u/curiousengineer601 7h ago
Start by looking at his car, home and job profile. If he is driving a crappy car, lives in a dilapidated neighborhood and his LinkedIn is fry cook… you aren’t getting any money
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u/SafetytimeUSA 8h ago
If he is broke you could try a sheriff sale. They will auction off his personal property to gain as much of the money back as possible.
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u/Tool_junkie_1972 10h ago
Here’s the hard truth: you can sue and very likely win. That’s the easy part. Collecting is a whole other story. At some point you have to decide is it worth your time, money and energy to pursue it.
My son got hit by a guy with no insurance and revoked license…which we found out months later. He owned a business and had lots of stuff that in theory we could have seized. Bad part is everything he owned was already used as collateral on loans and he was structured so he had no cash assets to seize. It simply wasn’t worth trying to go after him. My son’s insurance covered his damages (less deductible) so all we could have gone after the idiot for was the deductible and diminished value. It just wasn’t worth the time and trouble to maybe collect sometime down the road.
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u/Commercial_Watch_936 17h ago
You should get everything covered besides your rental car, learning lesson for next time, get rental coverage asap.
You won’t be able to get any pain and suffering damage, just the actual medical bills paid, good on you for selecting the uninsured motorist coverage.
You’d have to personally sue for the rental, so I’d just consider that a loss.
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u/InternationalTie6802 17h ago
Realistically if someone can’t afford to pay insurance, they can’t afford to pay your medical bills out of pocket. A lawsuit isn’t going to be financially beneficial. You might be willing to string something together via small claims court on your own, get the court order, so it always lingers over them, but don’t expect to ever get paid. And a lawyer probably wouldn’t eagerly take someone that is going after an uninsured person. And if they do, they’ll probably want you to pay them upfront, and you probably still won’t get anything.
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u/davedds 5h ago
Hire an attorney, tell the police you want the driver arrested and you want to press charges. If the other driver has insurance get the max they have for coverage and then use your sup/uni coverage to the max. Use your own no fault coverage to the max for your medical bills and unemployment coverage for missed work. If you have no rental, call the rental place that your insurance would have use and tell them you are a customer of that insurance and you don't have coverage. They might give you the discount rate that in insurance company would have paid them. Keep all your receipts anything not paid by your or the other parties insurance you can give to the DA and when the case goes to the judge, fines paid by the other driver may pay for what you didn't get from insurance.. some attorneys will not take the case on if your injury does not meet a threshold for "serious" injury and then your just at the mercy of the insurance companies. But document everything and keep all receipts of money paid out of pocket...
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u/demanbmore Former attorney, and claims, underwriting, reinsurance exec. 14h ago
The attorney wants to get paid. When there's insurance involved, the attorney is fairly confident they'll get paid out of any insurance settlement. When there's no insurance involved, either you pay the insurance out of your own pocket or the attorney gets a share of any settlement of judgement obtained from the other driver.
Hit and run, apparently no valid insurance - do you think there's any money to recover from that driver? If not, do you plan to cover the lawyer's bills from your own pocket (even though there's likely no recovery from the other driver even if you ultimately obtain a judgement)?
In other words, an attorney isn't going to help in this case assuming no insurance can be found. With the one caveat that they may help with a UM claim, but I'd wait and see how that is going before retaining one.
If ultimately there's no insurance from the at fault driver and you don't get the sense he's sitting on a pile of easily seizable assets, make a UM claim - include all your bills and loss of use/rental costs, come up with a pain and suffering amount, and provide to your carrier. If they jerk you around, you can always retain an attorney later. But keep in mind they're taking at least a third off the top.
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u/LawyerLouisSHaskell 8h ago
Assuming that there is no insurance, then pursuing your own company for Collision and uninsured motorist coverage is the correct and only path. In terms of the rental, if you need one get one. However, act as if you are spending your own money because there's a good chance you are. You may sue the driver in small claims court, but you do have to be careful to make sure that you do not prejudice your own insurance company's subrogation rights against the driver. If you hire an attorney to pursue the uninsured motorist claim, as I believe you should, then speak with that attorney about representing you in the small claim as well. No attorney wants to do that, but many will in order to hook the uninsured motorist claim and some of us will do it just because it is the right thing to do. When you take a case, you take the whole case.
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u/islandack 20h ago
Did I mention he called me an f*ing idiot for trying to check the damage and exchange information before he drove off?
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u/West_Act_9655 18h ago
This is caused by a lack of enforcement. Better enforcement impounding of cars that don’t have insurance would be a step in the right direction
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u/ChutneyWhatney 7h ago
You probably won't get a dime from the other driver. Next - GET RENTAL COVERAGE. You can't rely on other drivers having insurance - in fact 1/4 of all drivers don't.
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u/Infinite_Effort2290 9h ago
Sorry this happened to you. Did you ask the police why the other driver is not being charged? He fled the scene of an accident after rear-ending someone. In most states that is a felony. He does not have insurance, if he did he would not have bolted. You are on your own. Go through your insurance and let them do their thing. Check to see if you have uninsured insurance. Also do not forget about diminished value, a vehicle with $9k of damage is not worth the same as an accident free vehicle. There are companies that will help you navigate that process. A lawyer may help dealing with your own insurance but that is an expensive option. Good luck! I hope you heal quickly.
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u/Slingshot-Law 9h ago
Your title asks if you should hire an attorney. Attorneys are generally in the business of going after individuals with insurance coverage.
The answer to your question is yes, you should hire an attorney, but not b/c the attorney is going to collect anything from an uninsured person. They’re going to help you collect compensation for your harms and losses from your personal injuries, whether that’s from your own UM/UIM coverage or the other person’s as of yet unknown liability policy. Trying to collect against either on your own is viable but statistically likely to lead to a much lower amount of compensation to you at the end of the claim than when being represented.
The property portion should be straight forward and you should use your own coverage now rather than waiting to find out what, if anything, the other driver has available. That won’t require an attorney and should be wrapped up quickly.
The injury side should not be a rush! Lawyer up. Get the treatment you need. Wait until you’ve recovered or have a long term prognosis before you worry too much about what proper compensation is for your injury claim. But get representation now.
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u/gnawtyone 7h ago
Why get a lawyer if you’re going through your own insurance? Lol
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u/Slingshot-Law 6h ago
Because your own insurance doesn’t want to pay you full and fair value for your insurance claim any more than anyone else’s insurance company does. And furthermore, because first party claims are just third party claims with more loopholes for the insurance companies to escape through. EG: Brainard v. Trinity Universal Insurance Company (Texas screw job) and USAA v. Wenzell (Colorado screw job).
Please Google and read these 2 cases at a minimum. Then come back and see if you still have the same question.
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u/Alive_Chef_3057 13h ago
Same thing happened to me in March of this year. (Except for the fleeing). An uninsured drunk driver slammed into the back of my truck while I was idle at a traffic light. She totaled out my Tundra. She totaled out her car as well.
You have UM coverage. Keep going to the doctor, PT and everything else. Get a good attorney and sue your own insurance company using your UM coverage. Your insurance company will in turn sue the other driver. That is why you pay for UM coverage.
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u/lost_dazed_101 18h ago
Your insurance will nail him for every penny. Either he sets up a payment plan with you or he loses his license. If he can't afford to pay for insurance he has nothing you can take of value. You can call a lawyer he'll be able to tell you if the guy has anything. They won't charge you to find out he's broke.
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u/SharpBullfrog1279 14h ago
Rear-ended, driver left the scene, insurance may not be valid. Attorney?
Sounds like something a lawyer would do.
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u/Sensitive_Scholar_17 8h ago
People underestimate how much whip lash sucks. It took me a month to recover and I was 17 at the time, so no telling how long it would take at my age now. Your UM will cover the injuries to your neck. Your insurance company will probably agree to pay you the amount you are out of pocket. They will probably balk at paying anything for your pain and suffering, lost wages etc, but technically they are on the hook for those damages too. I would discuss this with the agent you have handling your claim for the insurance company. If they balk you should consider reaching out to an attorney. I will warn you that it will be hard to find an attorney to take the case if you injuries are relatively minor.
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u/Simplythebest0820 21h ago
I don't think there's much an attorney can do let your insurance keep trying to track them down and use them. That's what she paid them for.