OT: Insurance guys and lawyers - advise please

[fezo]

Wednesday night my daughter got her car rear ended when she was stopped at a traffic light on Rt. 37 in Toms River. Some guy in a PU with a cooler and fishing polls on the front (her description). No police report yet but they wrote the guy for careless driving.

Original estimate on the car is $6K but that's with all new parts. Here's the dilemma on that. It's an 04 Camry with 220K on the odometer but it spent its first 10 tears owned by a Toyota mechanic and friend of mine who kept it perfect and I've continued to do so. I'm expecting like a $2K an it's totaled. I'd much rather fix the car.

More importantly, my daughter hurt her let (non-dominant) arm in the accident. The ER says muscle spasm between neck and shoulder radiating down to where her left hand has numbness. Going to need an orthopedist and PT for sure. She had to take a final in sign language interpreting (her major) the next day but managed to pull it off.

Obviously I want to make sure that she returns to 100% and the car to at least 90% (heck even with the left rear caved it id drives like new).

Appreciate any advice.

 

[DJ Spanky]

First and most important, do whatever you have to for your daughter. Orthopedist, definitely, and possibly look for one specializing in spinal issues as this is what it sounds like. Has she seen a doctor outside of the ER? If not, get her in to see her regular doc as soon as possible. How hard was she hit and how did here body/head move in response to the accident? Did her airbag deploy? Was she belted in? Share any details you're comfortable with.

 

[rutgersal]

Get a good lawyer, who can craft a fair settlement from the PU owners insurance company. Keep all receipts from PT.

Total the car. Won't ever be the same and not worth getting it fixed, IMO. With 220K miles, you got your use from it.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Wednesday night my daughter got her car rear ended when she was stopped at a traffic light on Rt. 37 in Toms River. Some guy in a PU with a cooler and fishing polls on the front (her description). No police report yet but they wrote the guy for careless driving.

Original estimate on the car is $6K but that's with all new parts. Here's the dilemma on that. It's an 04 Camry with 220K on the odometer but it spent its first 10 tears owned by a Toyota mechanic and friend of mine who kept it perfect and I've continued to do so. I'm expecting like a $2K an it's totaled. I'd much rather fix the car.

I'd need to know the options on the car, engine, powertrain, etc., but very minimum KBB value is around 4K. There are a couple of sites you can use to calculate this - here's KBB's site:

Kelley Blue Book

The most important thing is whether there was any frame damage. If so, it just may not be worth fixing.

Who did you have provide the estimate? Have you gone to more than one body shop?

There is a hell of a lot to be said about a car that's mechanically sound, so if it's body and interior panels, considering how many Camry have been manufactured there should be a ready supply of used parts. And a good body shop should be able to provide you estimates both ways.

Who's your insurance company? They may be able to work with you on this depending upon who they are.

 

[daneman100]

To get advice you need to get to a lawyer. Every case is EXTREMELY fact specific, and no matter how much you think you are sharing here you are likely to leave out pertinent information.

In the mean time make sure you get receipts from all doctors and make sure any injury is documented in medical reports. You will need to show that they were caused due to the injury. Also start noting impacts in her life from the injuries.

I hope for a full recovery from your daughter, these type of injuries tend to linger.

 

[fezo]

I disagree on the car. We got 35K on it and the car is still perfect mechanically. The hit didn't even knock the alignment off.

She's only seen the ER doctor and I have her making an appointment with the orthopedist practice. She'll see her regular doc as well. He is top notch.. She was belted in and no air bag deployment. I taught all the kids the car doesn't move with an unbelted person in it.

I don't have many details beyond what I've shared. She was in a state of semi-shock and by the time I saw her she was in the ER. She had managed to drive the car 20 miles to our driveway. From her description I'd gues that her arm stiffened on impact and took he hit but that's only a guess. I'll leave that to the pros.

Need a good accident lawyer in Ocean County.

 

[Rutgers85]

You don't need a lawyer. Her medical bills will go thru your PIP coverage regardless of fault. You probably have the verbal threshold so she needs to have a certain type of injury to get money from the other company. You can go thru the other carrier for the PD to avoid your deductible if you have collision on the car.

 

[fezo]

No threhold exactly for this reason.

 

[KaKaKen]

You don't need a lawyer. Her medical bills will go thru your PIP coverage regardless of fault. You probably have the verbal threshold so she needs to have a certain type of injury to get money from the other company. You can go thru the other carrier for the PD to avoid your deductible if you have collision on the car.

Finally some real world advise.
All these other windbags might as well have offered no advice at all.

 

[MikeRU1766]

Finally some real world advise.
All these other windbags might as well have offered no advice at all.

Very true. It tends to happen a lot on message boards, but hey searching through 5-10 bad posts to find that one gem in my mind is worth it. Hence why I stay on the message board lol.

And more importantly I hope that your daughter has a FULL recovery. I'll say a prayer tonight for you guys.

 

[RU4Real]

Finally some real world advise.
All these other windbags might as well have offered no advice at all.

Precisely.

Also, disregard Spanky's comments about "frame damage". The only cars he knows are 40 year-old muscle cars. Your '04 Camry doesn't have a frame.

 

[sailor41123]

first of all, the car is a total loss and I believe that it will not be allowed back on the road... you can argue its worth but that's about it.... what did you pay for the car and how long did you have it......it is 11 yrs. old. worth probably under 5k.... but how long you had it and what you paid is important..

based on the injury you have it is first important to know the other persons ins. company... some of them are pretty straight forward and you can deal directlyl with them.... it should be a name brand company...

sorry, being called to diner..

 

[fezo]

Spanky - I'm a little late here... It's a Camry LE 4cyl automatic. The guy I bought it from, the son of good friends, put a stabilizer bar in the front so it's part way to an SE but for reality's sake we'll say an SE.

Our insurance is NJM. They said we could hand them the whole thing and they'd settle it and do the subrugation with the other guy's insurance company. Don't know if that's a good idea or not. So far I don't know who his insurance company is.

My daughter continues to improve.

 

[Rutgers85]

Ignore Kellys Blue book. The state of NJ allows 3 sources to value a car. Red book, NADA book and a market survey. The values in KBB are inflated. On the police report, there is a 3 digit code above the other guys name which is the insurance code. For example NJM is 428. You look up the codes online if you want to contact the other company. Remember you are also entitled to a rental car which the other company should pay for. If you go thru the other company have the rental set up as a direct bill with the rental company.

 

[fezo]

Thanks. Still waiting for the report.

Saw my daughter today. She is one stiff young lady. As my other driving age daughter is back on the road my wife is taking my nice new 13 Mazda 5 while my daughter gets the Prius and I get the crashmobile. TRying to got have NJN rent the car - that's a $20 stripper. Maybe Fred Flintstone type power.

 

[SkilletHead2]

Hey Fez,

Really sorry to hear about this. Hope everybody returns to 100%! You don't need more aggravation in your life.

Let me make two recommendations. First, although the recommendations on the board seem reasonable, call a lawyer. If it runs you $200 and you find out what you need to know, it's worthwhile. Second, I'd seriously consider not providing any more details of the crash on the board.

 

[KingHigh]

The people who say "you don't need a lawyer" are the ones who are happy getting a few Dr appointments paid for and the kbb value of their car. If this does not sound satisfactory, then you do need a lawyer.

 

[RUScrew85]

Finally some real world advise.
All these other windbags might as well have offered no advice at all.

You're not going to keep your stellar Likes-Posts ratio with that attitude.;)

 

[DJ Spanky]

Also, disregard Spanky's comments about "frame damage". The only cars he knows are 40 year-old muscle cars. Your '04 Camry doesn't have a frame.

Neither did my MIL's 05 Ford Focus wagon, rather it had sub-frames as almost all cars do nowadays, and it was totaled because front passenger fork of the sub-frame was kinked. All the other damage was in expensive to fix, but because of that kink they would have needed a truck body puller to straighten it, and there was no guarantees that it wouldn't crack.

 

[RU4Real]

Haha...

You said "Focus".

 

[DJ Spanky]

Haha...

You said "Focus".

Lack of it in our fan base is one of the reasons we lose games!

 

[mcbabz]

Not sure if it's been said already, but definitely confirm with Threshold you have: Lawsuit/Verbal or Zero/No.....soft tissue typically you won't be able to sue for pain/suffering and will just have to collect through PIP for the medical.

If you do have the No Threshold Tort, which is the more expensive option and a lower percentage of people carry it, you typically have an easier time taking someone to court for soft tissue & pain/suffering, etc.

Each case is different.......so, if you think the back injury might be even remotely serious, might be worth while to just talk to a lawyer if you know one.

 

[j10oreo]

^^^There's a tort system in place. Most people have limitations on lawsuits because of the drastic savings in insurance premium in most cases. If this happens to be a case selected on your auto insurance, it'd have to be an extreme case (i.e... death, loss of limb, etc.) in order to seek legal/civil action in court. But at the end in the day I'm not a lawyer so all I can give is my knowledge on insurance, not the legal system which a lawyer would be more qualified to navigate.

 

[MidwestKnights]

Finally some real world advise.
All these other windbags might as well have offered no advice at all.

But, you have to stay on top of it. I had a similar accident last year in NJ in a similar location, Cops wrote the women who hit me for careless driving and required a court appearance by her. Other drivers insurance company was a little dickish though until I faxed them the accident report 48 hours afterwards and the other driver kept postponing court appearances.

Don't just rely on PD records and court admin to keep you up to date in a big town like TR. Call if you have any questions and it might be best to pick up the accident report in person so they can put a face to a name.

You have up to a year to file any claims, so I wouldn't get a lawyer yet, just see how quickly the insurance company works and if they are cooperative or not. I thought I was going to need a lawyer at first, but the process played out fine and all my expenses were covered.

I had no injuries but was pretty sore for a few days and saw my primary pretty quickly after 2 ER visits. See the GP and the orthopedist (and keep an eye out for spinal or head injuries if she whiplashed or hit her head) and then make your decision about the lawyer.

I have a few friends who are lawyers and they walked me through the process and advised me to wait a couple of weeks before deciding on whether or not to use an attorney.

 

[fezo]

We do have no threshold. It's like collision insurance. You only need i once to pay off. NOt saying that's how we're going.

At least now I know the other guy's insurance is Progressive.