Harassed By Random Person's Insurance

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Aren’t you a lawyer? This is terrible advice. If he’s insured, he has an obligation to report this to his insurance carrier, or risk a coverage denial for failure to report this timely. He can ignore her, tell her to fuck off, shit on her front law, but he absolutely should report this to HIS carrier. [/quote]

No, almost always you have an obligation to report an actual suit or (often) an accident, not some crank calling you on the phone about a non-event.[/quote]

Yes, but the fact people are reacting this way (Bodyguard’s response) speaks to how effective their strategy is. Since she made contact her appeal has been: stop worrying about it, just keep me your insurance information and we’ll get it taken care of…

This smells like pure bullshit…

Contact your insurance ASAP.

You say this happened months ago (allegedly)? What the hell allegedly happened? Did this happen or not? If it happened, were police called? Is there an official police report? Why is this contact happening months later? Who is the alleged person who has your license plate #?

I would not say SHIT to the person contacting you, and call your insurance company before saying anything to anyone. If the person contacting you threatens you with X legal action, call your insurance company and let them inquire about what is true and what isn’t.

My bullshit detector is on 24/7, and this smells like a steamer for sure.

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Aren’t you a lawyer? This is terrible advice. If he’s insured, he has an obligation to report this to his insurance carrier, or risk a coverage denial for failure to report this timely. He can ignore her, tell her to fuck off, shit on her front law, but he absolutely should report this to HIS carrier. [/quote]

No, almost always you have an obligation to report an actual suit or (often) an accident, not some crank calling you on the phone about a non-event.[/quote]

You’re wrong. It’s notice of a potential claim. I doubt his policy language is restricted to actual “claims” or “suits”.

Just wondering… if this actually happened to her AND has witnesses, wouldn’t she report this to the police? The police would then get a statement from her and the witness and give you a call telling you to either give your insurance information to him or suspend your license?

[quote]Spartiates wrote:
I am insured.

My insurance company uses any excuse to jackup my rates.

That is my hesitation in contacting them.

There was no police report, I’m quit sure of it. If there had been, and the ‘witness’ had reported my license plate number to them, I’m sure I’d have heard something less than 4 months after the alleged date.

If I were to speculate, my guess would be that the client filled the claim some time after the ‘incident’. Was told if they didn’t have someone to blame, their rates would get jacked up, and returned to where it happened (if that even) and picked out a license plate from the a car that looked like a total beater (mine), and that’s that…

Pure speculation, but my motorcycle got hit in a parking lot once, and since I didn’t know who did it, if I wanted to file a claim (and I did, it was like 2k+ worth of damage), it would have to go an an uninsured claim, and they jacked my rates up after that

The fact that this woman has not made a specific threat… like that she’ be filing charges, exe… makes her sound more full of shit.

Actually here is her email with the names removed for your reading pleasure:

Some amazing logic at work here…[/quote]

The above constitutes notice of a claim. Forward this in a timely manner to your insurance company. Let them deal with it. See my earlier comments about the lack of damage to your vehicle and you may even want to try to determine where you were when the accident allegedly happened and prove it if you can. Your rates will not go up for an accident you didn’t commit.

What could happen next is if you ignore this, they could track down your insurance carrier and notify them directly. And then they can say you’re shit of of luck and deny coverage because you didn’t report it when you received this notice.

Just report it and stop listening to everyone here trying to “MacGuyver” this shit. They’re wrong. I have 20 years insurance claims experience that says so.

[quote]zooropa1150 wrote:
Just wondering… if this actually happened to her AND has witnesses, wouldn’t she report this to the police? The police would then get a statement from her and the witness and give you a call telling you to either give your insurance information to him or suspend your license? [/quote]

There is likely an accident/police report. If she didn’t call, her claim is even weaker than it appears to be. However, the most important thing is that he reports/forwards the notice to his insurance carrier.

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Aren’t you a lawyer? This is terrible advice. If he’s insured, he has an obligation to report this to his insurance carrier, or risk a coverage denial for failure to report this timely. He can ignore her, tell her to fuck off, shit on her front law, but he absolutely should report this to HIS carrier. [/quote]

No, almost always you have an obligation to report an actual suit or (often) an accident, not some crank calling you on the phone about a non-event.[/quote]

Yes, but the fact people are reacting this way (Bodyguard’s response) speaks to how effective their strategy is. Since she made contact her appeal has been: stop worrying about it, just keep me your insurance information and we’ll get it taken care of…[/quote]

It’s not a “strategy”. I assure you they legitimately believe her claim - they have no way of knowing otherwise. The end game is a lawsuit against you or, contacting your carrier directly and them possibly denying coverage b/c you didn’t report it timely and then them still suing you. You have now received good advice - follow it and let your insurance company deal with it. Just provide them as much info as Cuban and I recommended…Jesus H we both did this for a living!

[quote]Cuban32 wrote:
Finally, I am a claims adjustor for a major company, just like anything else you are innocent until proven guilty, if you did not do it, then the witness just put the license plate down wrong.

Whether you tell you insurance company or not, they will tell your insurance company for you, and they will open up a claim in your name, your insurance company will investigate as well as theres.

If you claim you did not do it, they will take pictures of your car to see if there is any corresponding damage, also, if you hit and ran and fixed your car and experienced adjustor will be able to tell if you put on a new part or if pant is more fresh on a certain part of the car.

If you really didnt do it, then they cant prove it, your insurance company will send them a denial in your name.

If you did do it, there will be evidence on your car to prove that you did, even if you repaired the evidence.

If you didnt do it, dont worry about it.

If you did and are being shady I hope you covered you ass good enough to the point where they cant prove it.

PM me if you have additional questions.[/quote]

Hey, we can PM if you’d rather, but I think this is good information for everyone.

It’s like I said. I was contacted by the previous owner with an email forwarded from this woman dated May 2. I told him to tell her that he hasn’t had the vehicle in years and that his name being associated with the vehicle was a mistake, tell her that, ask her to leave him alone.

Well, he wasn’t comfortable with that, and she kept on him. A couple days ago I sent her an email saying to stop contacting him: he hasn’t touched the car since he sold it to me years ago, and it’s weird his name is still associated with it at all. I told her neither me nor my vehicle were involved in the incident she described, and I wasn’t going to speculate as to how my license plate # got picked out of a hat four months after the alleged incident.

She doesn’t have my insurance information. She’s very clear that’s all she wants. She doesn’t know who my insurance carrier is. If she’d contacted them, I’m sure they’d have contacted me.

A note on my car: it’s a POS car I had through college. It was the car everyone used, and beatup. It should actually be very identifiable by the lack of paint, and broken/tapped up windows, and lack of a front bumper, and a number of other distinguishing features, none of which have been offered up. This is not my primary vehicle. In fact, it really only gets driven when there’s lots of snow on the road as it’s busted up and gets like 10mpg. There’s paint and body damage all over. Certainly nothing has been repaired, but there’s not an aspect of the car that hasn’t been hit, or hit something at some point…

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Aren’t you a lawyer? This is terrible advice. If he’s insured, he has an obligation to report this to his insurance carrier, or risk a coverage denial for failure to report this timely. He can ignore her, tell her to fuck off, shit on her front law, but he absolutely should report this to HIS carrier. [/quote]

No, almost always you have an obligation to report an actual suit or (often) an accident, not some crank calling you on the phone about a non-event.[/quote]

Yes, but the fact people are reacting this way (Bodyguard’s response) speaks to how effective their strategy is. Since she made contact her appeal has been: stop worrying about it, just keep me your insurance information and we’ll get it taken care of…[/quote]

It’s not a “strategy”. I assure you they legitimately believe her claim - they have no way of knowing otherwise. The end game is a lawsuit against you or, contacting your carrier directly and them possibly denying coverage b/c you didn’t report it timely and then them still suing you. You have now received good advice - follow it and let your insurance company deal with it. Just provide them as much info as Cuban and I recommended…Jesus H we both did this for a living![/quote]

My comment was in no way an attack on you, or a claim that you were somehow naive, but that when people receive threatening correspondence, they tend to do what they’re told.

In what sense am I obligated to report anything to my insurance carrier? My vehicle was not in an accident.

[quote]Cuban32 wrote:

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Aren’t you a lawyer? This is terrible advice. If he’s insured, he has an obligation to report this to his insurance carrier, or risk a coverage denial for failure to report this timely. He can ignore her, tell her to fuck off, shit on her front law, but he absolutely should report this to HIS carrier. [/quote]

No, almost always you have an obligation to report an actual suit or (often) an accident, not some crank calling you on the phone about a non-event.[/quote]

Yes, but the fact people are reacting this way (Bodyguard’s response) speaks to how effective their strategy is. Since she made contact her appeal has been: stop worrying about it, just keep me your insurance information and we’ll get it taken care of…[/quote]

It’s not a “strategy”. I assure you they legitimately believe her claim - they have no way of knowing otherwise. The end game is a lawsuit against you or, contacting your carrier directly and them possibly denying coverage b/c you didn’t report it timely and then them still suing you. You have now received good advice - follow it and let your insurance company deal with it. Just provide them as much info as Cuban and I recommended…Jesus H we both did this for a living![/quote]

My comment was in no way an attack on you, or a claim that you were somehow naive, but that when people receive threatening correspondence, they tend to do what they’re told.

In what sense am I obligated to report anything to my insurance carrier? My vehicle was not in an accident.[/quote]

Possible things that will happen if you dont report it:

The other company reports it for you, your company could deny coverage for not telling them.

They ask for reimbursment from you DIRECTLY, then you have to lawyer up out of your own pocket, instead of your companies lawyers doing it for you, this is one of things you pay a monthly payment for, THEIR REPRESENTATION.

Lets say they bill you and you ignore it, they put a collection agency on you, your credit gets hurt.

What happens if you report it to your insurance agency, NOTHING, they will handle it, YOU WONT HAVE TO WORRY.

What happens if you dont ANY NUMBER OF THINGS LIKE I MENTIONED ABOVE. Why risk it?[/quote]

Hmmm… may be a minor distinction… but can I contact JUST my insurance guys, and ignore her further correspondences if I do that?

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]Hallowed wrote:

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

Tell her to fuck off, in no uncertain terms. DO NOT give her any information.

If motivated, demand all her information (her agent license no, etc), as you desire to report her to the insurance board for your state.[/quote]

This is what my gut tells me to do.

However, I worry that this will become an even greater time-suck if they decide to file charges of some sort…[/quote]

Contact YOUR Insurance agent or broker.
They will probably help you with this.
[/quote]

As a lawyer, I respectfully disagree.

  1. Insurance companies frequently have agreements among themselves to “no fault” settle. So, even though you have NOTHING to do with this, your carrier very well may pay. The result is a loss against you and higher rates. It is in the carrier’s discretion to settle, even if B.S.

  2. In some states, merely the claim (even if ultimately dismissed) will result in higher rates.

  3. If they were going to press charges or whatever, they would have already.[/quote]

THIS is why lawyers have malpractice insurance. LOL. Dude, call your insurance agent and defer to them while I address this piss poor legal advice above. What kind of law do you practice anyway?

  1. Insurance companies are often signatories to inter-company arbitration and agree to have such disputes, such as subrogation, settled in that venue, forgoing any right to appeal. There is still rules and evidence for such hearings. Please provide the reference for this “no fault” agreement that pays phantom claims!

  2. Please reference those States that raise your rates for claims that you are not responsible for!

  3. This is perhaps the worst advice yet. Is there an actual legal term for “ignore it and hope it goes away”? LOL Any subrogation department worth its salt is going to do a search for his carrier, and then notify the carrier directly.

Corporate law? Family law?

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Aren’t you a lawyer? This is terrible advice. If he’s insured, he has an obligation to report this to his insurance carrier, or risk a coverage denial for failure to report this timely. He can ignore her, tell her to fuck off, shit on her front law, but he absolutely should report this to HIS carrier. [/quote]

No, almost always you have an obligation to report an actual suit or (often) an accident, not some crank calling you on the phone about a non-event.[/quote]

Yes, but the fact people are reacting this way (Bodyguard’s response) speaks to how effective their strategy is. Since she made contact her appeal has been: stop worrying about it, just keep me your insurance information and we’ll get it taken care of…[/quote]

It’s not a “strategy”. I assure you they legitimately believe her claim - they have no way of knowing otherwise. The end game is a lawsuit against you or, contacting your carrier directly and them possibly denying coverage b/c you didn’t report it timely and then them still suing you. You have now received good advice - follow it and let your insurance company deal with it. Just provide them as much info as Cuban and I recommended…Jesus H we both did this for a living![/quote]

My comment was in no way an attack on you, or a claim that you were somehow naive, but that when people receive threatening correspondence, they tend to do what they’re told.

In what sense am I obligated to report anything to my insurance carrier? My vehicle was not in an accident.[/quote]

Get a copy of your policy and look for a clause that is entitled “your duties in the event of an accident, loss, claim, suit” or some wording to that effect. It will explain your exact obligations. What you have right now is a notice of a “claim” - meritorious or not, you are obligated under your policy to report it or risk losing your coverage for this “claim”.

The above is crystal clear, irrefutable, no matter what the Jewbacca says - he’s wrong. Call your agent please. I’m trying to help you.

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Aren’t you a lawyer? This is terrible advice. If he’s insured, he has an obligation to report this to his insurance carrier, or risk a coverage denial for failure to report this timely. He can ignore her, tell her to fuck off, shit on her front law, but he absolutely should report this to HIS carrier. [/quote]

No, almost always you have an obligation to report an actual suit or (often) an accident, not some crank calling you on the phone about a non-event.[/quote]

You’re wrong. It’s notice of a potential claim. I doubt his policy language is restricted to actual “claims” or “suits”.[/quote]

And by the way Jewbacca, that notice he received is absolutely a “claim” as that qualified term is defined under the policy - guaranteed. It alleges a loss or an accident.

Following your advice to its logical conclusion, the only lawsuits we have to forward to our insurance companies are those that we feel have merit - in spite of the clear policy language requiring prompt notice of “suits”.

edit:

The only way this wouldn’t be considered a “claim” is if his policy’s definition of “claim” (and other related qualified terms) were limited to “a demand for money” or something similar - and I can’t recall if a specific money demand was made in that email. I’ve never seen an auto policy limited in this respect. The only policies I’ve seen like that are malpractice policies, usually medical, due to the large volume of “notice only” type events that occur in medicine.

Under any reasonable analysis, he should report this to his agent.

[quote]roguevampire wrote:
a person writing down your your liscense plate # is called heresay. its bullshit. its not proof of any sort. police, insurance comp. need proof. whats stopping anyone from doing that. a persons friend calls and uses any # they can find in the parking lot at the time and says that person hit someones car. any moron can do that. thats why its not used as proof. id contact my insurance company and thats it. don’t bother. [/quote]

lol you are such a moron

Listen to bodyguard and Cuban . I had one malpractice case on twenty years against me . I settled out of court after 11 years for 2000$. The other attorney begged us to offer anything so he could dump the case .

It was nuisance . They did most of the work . I did what they say. Though the pictures of her doing manual labor on my cousin’s farm while on welfare and working under the table also helped .

Insurance companies chew these claims and spit them out .

There is no police report.

This person is contacting you months after this shit happened.

This thing has already failed.

[quote]Cuban32 wrote:
BG is right, this is a claim, WHY THE FUCK ARE PEOPLE QUESTIONING PEOPLE WHO ARE OR HAVE DONE THIS FOR A LIVING. I am not trying to sound arrogant but i and bg know what we are talking about. All advise besides me and BG’s on this thread IS WRONG, no other way to put it.[/quote]

Lol - because people feel COMPELLED to give their opinion - even when it’s dogshit worthless.

OP should listen to the actual insurance guys in the thread. Just report it to your Ins company - it takes 5 minutes and you have COVERED YOUR ASS - seems like a simple thing to do as far as I’m concerned.

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

[quote]Hallowed wrote:

[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]Jewbacca wrote:

Tell her to fuck off, in no uncertain terms. DO NOT give her any information.

If motivated, demand all her information (her agent license no, etc), as you desire to report her to the insurance board for your state.[/quote]

This is what my gut tells me to do.

However, I worry that this will become an even greater time-suck if they decide to file charges of some sort…[/quote]

Contact YOUR Insurance agent or broker.
They will probably help you with this.
[/quote]

As a lawyer, I respectfully disagree.

  1. Insurance companies frequently have agreements among themselves to “no fault” settle. So, even though you have NOTHING to do with this, your carrier very well may pay. The result is a loss against you and higher rates. It is in the carrier’s discretion to settle, even if B.S.

  2. In some states, merely the claim (even if ultimately dismissed) will result in higher rates.

  3. If they were going to press charges or whatever, they would have already.[/quote]

I am an Insurance Professional.

However I broker middle to large market commercial property & casualty.

I concede personal auto may be quite different.

If anyone tried this with one of my clients… well many many LULZ of the Sicilian nature would be had.

So that is the three Insurance Professionals or prior Insurance Professionals that I know of on TNation all saying to report it…

yeah.