My Tacoma has a BooBoo

I blame the chrome wheel covers...............

 

Perhaps you misunderstood my post. I did not at any point say that he should pay a retainer and hire a lawyer. I suggested CONTACTING a lawyer, as they will better understand traffic laws and haw they work in fault as well as no-fault auto accidents. Arming oneself with as much information as is possible is ALWAYS the best solution.

 

wow, sorry to hear that.

My wife thinks Im overly cautious when I drive because I always wait for other drivers with a signal on to acutally start their turn before doing anything. I had similar experiences to you long ago and learned never to trust people signal. People change their mind. or forget. Ive follow cars with the signal on for miles.

I also will be trying to turn onto a main road and often have somebody flash their highbeams telling me to turn in front of them... but not slow down at all. ???

/rant off
Hope you get it all sorted.

 

sorry if i did not get the right message across, but basically you summ'd up the most important part, the more information you have better you are in these cases.

but as important...
while talking to a lawyer and getting advice for free or whatever you feel is reasonable is always a good idea, mentioning the word 'lawyer' in a case like this before the final offer is suicide, you will always end up with alot less money in the end being paid by the insurance company and then you now give 20%+ to a lawyer.

always keep in mind, any positive affects of getting a lawyer 'officially' involved (meaning speaking for you) on day one or day 179 will 90% of the time get the same end result. so you have nothing to lose to try to get what you want yourself by not 'spooking' the company during that time and if you don't, THEN, say "oh by the way I have been talking with my attorney through all of this, he has some questions for you, would it be ok if he maybe gives you a call" ... or something similar, you get the idea

these are true stories on homeowner claims...

a lady had been fighting tooth and nail (like calling everyday or coming by every other day with more and more reasons the flood damage should be paid for) with us at the CAT office after a hurricane because part of the damage was obviously from flood water and she only had homeowners. honestly we paid every dollar we could legally pay without it being a red flag for fraud or something. she kept at it, not being crazy, NEVER mentioning a lawyer or threats and one day the head of the central region of the company came visit. my manager had enough of her aggravation plus her story started to be one of those stories locals start talking about. he simply told jerry (regional head) that we may start losing customers over bad PR, and jerry (the regional head) signed the $70,000 check so she would go away and be a happy camper like the 'good neighbor' commercials ya see, lol!

on the same hurricane...

a guy had a house raised on piers, the tidal surge was high enough to flood his house even when still on the piers. he had no flood insurance. i was the adjuster btw. what happened was the storm surge knocked the house off the piers and it floated a ways then fell to the ground and into the water. when i said we could not pay the full damages because it is obvious that at least the first 2 to 4 feet of the house was all flood damage he went crazy. (o his brother was the agent) i tried to explain to him that in my opinion it is possible that the damage above the water line could be from the strong winds. (the house was wracked from the thing slamming down on the ground, but still PLAUSIBLE that wind in a hurricane COULD POSSIBLY do that, and it states in the guidelines, when there is a questionable coverage issue you must rule in favor of the insured) so i did an estimate paying for everything on the house about 3' up. wrote a check, he said screw you. i went talk to his brother the agent and told him, basically the only reason i can offer that $100,000 or whatever is because i can see where it is plausible (that meets my requirements to pay or recommend a payment given) that the wind MAY have did some of the damage but if you do not tell him to shut the hell up he is going to screw himself! lol, him and his brother almost got into in the office one day, because the agent kept telling him to shut the &^*& up and he wasn't havin' it from his baby brother.

chris (the homeowner) hired a team of engineers to study every aspect of the storm by timeline of wind speed and direction and a team of lawyers, so, so did 'the good neighbor folks'. which btw, HAD NO plans on doing so or fighting the my payment recommendation, i even had my manager approve it since it was such a touchy issue.

raw data came in... the wind never got anywhere near strong enough to do anything close to that amount of damages! house worth about $1750,000 i did my best to get him $100,000, HE GOT ABOUT $7,000 for additional living expenses and a few other items.

on a car accident one time...
guy i knew had a whole bunch of high end stereo stuff and like $1300 radar detector that is installed in the grille and bumpers and all, etc. that got damaged. (all policies literally to the letter state any radar detection devices are excluded for collision or theft) and you need separate coverage for accessories. RIGHT AWAY on the first chat with the adjuster he started saying how they better cover this and that or they will hear... i happen to be there and slapped the phone out of his hand literally! if he would have said LAWYER, THERE WAS A VERY GOOD CHANCE MOST OF IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN PAID FOR! BUT, policies do include coverage for PERMANENTLY INSTALLED EQUIPMENT AND SAFETY DEVICES! so now when the adjuster came he could show that the $3500 nav/headunit that was crushed was permanently installed and the subs and the amps WERE solidly permanently installed AND the radar detector had other features like it also alerted to objects being too near to the car and also put a digital display with real time speed at eye level which allowed him to keep all his attention the road instead of looking down at the speedometer, therefore those features COULD BE considered installed safety devices.

when he met with the adjuster she agreed it could be argued that what he said was valid, so... it all got paid for, no arguments... if i would not have smacked him...
lawyers involved ...
claim paid to the letter of the policy...
NO lee-way or adjuster's judgment involved
he would have been out about $6000-$8000...



i could, well i have, gone on for days with car and home stories, lol

sorry for the long post, hope you at least found the stories interesting



O THIS IS REALLY IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU GUYS WITH EQUIPMENT...

take 5 minutes and document serial numbers and document who did the installs if you did not do it yourself and take pictures of all equipment that you legit have permanently bolted in and installed just in case something happens, its 5 mins of time but may save your rear-end if something bad happens

 

Just keep me updated on the repair/replacement of the truck. More importantly, I'm glad the woman only got a cracked sternum and no one else was injured. Those side impact airbags are amazing!


Thanks for posting the carnage.

KO