by jerome.tolliver » Wed Jul 28, 2010 01:50 am
accident in chicago. Wife had protected left turn with signal, other driver struck our vehicle causing significant damage and my wife also had broken ankle, which is being treated. Provided pictures of intersection that clearly supports our position and police report does not indicate fault only both sides my wife and the other driver. Was told verbally by medical adjuster that the insurance company will deny liability. This seems absolutely crazy to me!!!
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 02:01 am Post Subject:
I've been around the block enough to read between the lines. From what you posted my guess is that the other person had a different version of the accident then the your version.... correct? If two people came to you and gave different versions, how would you know for a fact which one was correct.
Adjusters should obtain _all_ of the information available about the accident, perhaps fill in a few gaps and make a liability decision based on this available info. They then apply state negligent laws to this decision. I'll give you an example of that last part. In some states if you are 1% at fault then you are bared from recovery. If the adjusters investigation shows that the other person is 10%, 20% or 30% at fault then it does not really matter how much... they cannot collect. Liability is denied. I'm not saying this is true of the state where your accident happened... I'm just explaining that last part.
Many times there is simply not enough info to show who is at fault one way or the other. In that case the adjuster usually falls back on the age old question... has the other person proven liability again my insured. If not, then the adjuster sides with their insured (as the insurance company has a greater responsibility to defend their insured) and denies liability. It's nothing person... it's neither right or wrong... it's just the correct thing to do in that situation.
This is why people need collision insurance... to protect themselves. If you choose not to have collision then you are choosing to deal with these types of situations.
P.S you never gave details about what happen in the accident. For example, you never explained where the other person was, what the point of impacts were to the vehicle, etc.
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