Hey guys. Yesterday I was in a pretty bad accident after work. Here is how it went down: I'm driving down W Little York, on my way to the beltway. I'm sitting in a stoplight in the far left lane. I see a Honda Accord which is going the opposite way, coming into the center turning lane pretty fast and heading towards me. The guy slams into my car, and the guy behind me. My car is a 2003 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE by the way. It looks pretty damn bad....the back tire on the drivers side was pretty much knocked off, I could see the shocks and other random parts just hanging off the car. The back bumper was also knocked off, and that rear drivers side is pretty much destroyed. Luckily the only thing wrong with me is I woke up with a pretty sore neck/back. The driver said he dozed off at the wheel, and that is why he slammed into us. He told the cop the same thing, and of course ended up with a ticket. My car meanwhile is only 6 months old, and this is the 2nd major accident I've been involved in (neither were my fault.) I am pissed off, as I'm sure the insurance company will do everything they can to keep from totaling the car, even though it is now worthless. Since this driver admittedly fell asleep at the wheel, do you think I would have a good case in court? Honestly, I'm not trying to sue the crap out of someone just to get cash....I'm just pissed that this jerkoff was careless enough to drive while tired, and as a result the value of my car is now next to nothing, even though I still owe over $20,000 on it. This also comes at the worst possible time, as my wife and I are going through very stressful fertitility treatments, so she is of course a wreck now. Any advice would be appreciated.
Get a lawyer. Seriously, I think there are quite a few on this board. They can refer you. If you aren't at fault, you're rates shouldn't go up, but they will if this is major accident number 2. To avoid the rate hike, I don't think you should tell your own insurance company about the accident. But then to prevent the other guy's insurance from screwing you, you should get a lawyer (in lieu of your own company backing you up).
Harrisment: A couple of things. First, what body shop are you going to?? What body shop fixed it the first time?? Second, who is the other guy's insurance company??? There is a way to recover your loss of value on your vehicle without having to hire a lawyer.
And tell you wife it's ok and bring her some flowers or something she likes to take her mind off of it.
The first time the car was repaired by the dealership (David McDavid Nissan), since it was only a few weeks old. This time, they're in the process of transporting it to a body shop near my house; Deer Park Paint and Body. My parents are good friends with the guy that owns the shop. The other guy's insurance company is State Farm. In the first accident, their insurance was Farmers. We still have not settled on that wreck and are having a hard time getting much compensation out of them. Thanks Codell, any help is appreciated.
I don't understand. Why are you suing again? Funny how the first thing people do when things go badly is file a lawsuit. Your recourse for damages to the vehicle or medical claims is his insurance company. I don't see how you have a cause of action unless that company has refused to pay.
Add (damn the no edit thing): I'm sorry to hear that you were in an accident, and relieved that you weren't injured. And it sucks that Farmers didn't take care of you from the previous accident, maybe you've got a claim against them (Farmers) for that. As someone suggested, consult an attorney who specializes in that area. Depending on the facts of the case, you might have recourse under article 21.21 of the Texas Insurance Code. As for State Farm, they still haven't done anything wrong yet.
Hmmmm. Honestly, Ive never heard of Deer Park P&B. Im familiar with almost every shop in the area, but thats not ringing a bell. I personally know the manager, Albert, at McDavid Body Shop though. McDavid's body shop is one of the better ones in the city. If you bring it your friend's shop though, just make sure they are willing to give you a warranty on the work. With regards to your loss of value, you need to approach the insurance company about filing a Diminished Value Claim. Since your vehicle has suffered a loss of value, case law in the State of Texas says that insurance companies owe that to you as part of the claim. Especially, on 3rd party claims (where the accident wasn't your fault). On 1st party claims (where you are filing with your own carrier), some insurance companies don't pay for loss of value. Alot of them do though. The problem you are going to run into, with trying to file a Diminished Value Claim with State Farm, is that they are going to see that you were already involved in one prior accident with Farmers, and will be hesistant to pay for a full loss of value. You are going to have to probably go back to Farmer's and file a diminished value claim for your 1st accident. When was the date of loss on your Farmer's claim?? How much damage was done $ wise??
I recommend telling your insurance company. They will deal with the other guy's insurance company on your behalf.
This is not entirely accurate in my experience. 1st party carriers will usually only go after the other party, if the other party's carrier has denied the claim out right. Thats when you file with your own carrier. However, its not like they just go fight the other insurance company. Your insurance company will end up covering your claim under the collision portion of a policy, including making you pay your standard deductible. Then, after the claim is closed, if they feel the other party is at fault, they will send the claim to their subrogation department to attempt to collect the monies that they paid out (but not necessarily your deductible). The best route, is to contact the other guy's carrier, and give them the opportunity to investigate and/or pay for the claim. State Farm is a pretty good insurance company. They don't just deny paying claims without good reasoning.
I actually did file a diminished value claim with Farmer's. They said (and continue to say) that the most they can give us is $1,500. The damage done to the vehicle was about $4,800. We recently took it to get appraised, just to see what it was worth now. We took it to a few different places, and the average was that it was worth about $14,000. Even though the sticker price on the car was $25,000, and it was only a couple months old. Here is another question I have for you. I know that when insurance adjustors are deciding whether or not to total a car, they decide if the damage done is a certain percentage of what the car is worth. Will they take into account the already diminished value of my car, since it has been wrecked before? Or will they just assume the value of my car is what it would be unwrecked?
$1,500 diminished value on a $4,800 is about right. My company handles a ton of diminished value claims and they usually end up being around 25% of the amount of repairs. One thing to keep in mind is, its very hard to base a loss of value claim on what a dealer is willing to offer you as a trade. 1) As soon as you drove it off the lot, your vehicle's value dropped by 10%. So regardless of whether it was wrecked or not, it wouldnt be worth $25,000 anyway. 2) Dealer's offers on trade in are wholesale figures. That is, they obviously don't give you full retail value, but instead, give you about 15-20% less, and then they will sell it for full retail in order to makea profit. So lets say they give you $14,000, and then they turn around and sell it for $18,000 or whatever. Then your vehicle's loss of value is based on what it re-sold for, not what you traded it in for. 3) I recommend to all my customers that they sell their vehicle's retail and not wholesale. Selling it on the open market is going to drive up the price, and thus, lessen your loss of value. When you trade a wrecked/repaired vehicle into a dealer, they usually don't even want the car. So taking into consideration basic supply/demand theories, that kind of tells you why insurance companies aren't going to pay you off of a dealer trade in quote. Bottom line is, cars lose alot less in diminished value on the open market, than they do when you trade them in. Thats why the insurance company is offering you, what seems to be, a smaller amoun than what you would lose if you traded it in. In the State of Texas, most insurance companies, including State Farm and Farmer's, use a 75% total loss threshold. On your vehicle, they will base that figure on normal retail, and not diminished retail value. However, if its close to being a total loss, sometimes they will go ahead and declare it a total if you make it known that you will be filing for a diminished value claim ahead of time. (they will basically guesstimate what the DMV will be and then add that to the repair amount to see if it exceeds the 75%).
BTW Harrisment. I just pulled up the values on your car. Depending on options and mileage, the retail value of your vehicle is about $21,000 and trade in is about $18,000 based on NADA. Even on clean cars (non wrecked ones),dealers usually dont pay full NADA trade in, but rather, about 10% less. So best case scenario, had your vehicle neve been wrecked, you could have expected about $16,000 - $16,500 on a trade. So you need to base your loss of value on that figure, and not the purchase/sticker price. The dealer is actually only discounting your vehicle about $2,000 - $3,000.
The other problem that you are going to run into is that even if they do total the car you are only gonna get the market value. That may not even cover what you owe on the car. I had this happen to me and I ended up paying $2000 out of pocket to cover what I still owed on the car after the loan company was given what I got for the car being totaled. I now carry an option on my insurance that will automatically cover at least what is owed on the car if it is totalled.
You should also go to the hospital and get checked out if you haven't. Serious injuries may not be immediately apparent.
