QuestionQUESTION: My car was rear ended when my roommate was driving my car. When specifically told mercury insurance what happened when they called to get a statement. We explained that my car was rear ended and we we not at fault. They later sent us a letter. Then they sent us another letter back stating that we did not respond back to the first letter. The letter said we have not had a reply to our recent letter in which we asked you to pay for the damage to our insured's property, or tell us the name of your insurance company. Since we have no record of a reply, we would appreciate your advising us immediately whether or or not you do carry insurance. If not, we shall expect you to reimburse this Company the above amount. If you are going to pay for the damage yourself, please remit your check or money order at once, payable to MERCURY CASUALITY COMPANY. If we do not hear from you within 15 days, we will conclude that you do not wish to make an amicable disposition and the matter will be referred to our legal department. The claim was already denied by my insurance company to get my car fixed because my roommate was an excluded driver. We are not fighting that and we are not looking to get my car fix becuase we cant afford it we are fighting this because the other driver caused the accident and rear ended my car it doesnt matter that my roommate was an excluded driver because the other driver was at fault and if the police would have come out they would have proved that. When my roommate called the police at the time of the accident they said we dont go out to that area. Anyways what is the best way to fight this. Both insurance companies were Mercury insurance so mercury does not want to sue mercury. That is why they are coming after us me because it was my car and my roommate becuase he was driving the car. I sent them a letter back updating my address with them becuase they had my old address and i asked them to update it with this file. I am going to look into legal aid for litigation but i would also like to write them a letter. Something like this.
Dear Mercury Insurance,
As a follow up to my previous letter updating my address. I am writing in regards to the Case # which you inquired about. Perhaps you are not clear of the circumstances of the accident. Your client who is making the claim rear ended my car. When a car rear ends someone else they are at fault. Therefore i am not responsible for damage to their car. I am enclosing a picture of my car so that you can see that they hit my car. Please resolve this matter with your client who hit my car and let them know that i am not responsible Thank you very much for your consideration of this matter.
Anyways any advice you can give me will be well appreciative.
ANSWER: Were you in the car when this occurred? I'm wondering if there is more to the story than your roommate told you. You need to call your claim rep and explain your perspective and ask why they are taking the position that your roommate was at fault. Don't worry about the letters, just talk to the claim rep so you understand what is going on. If the other driver was at fault, they should pay your damages under the other driver's policy, and the driver exclusion would not matter.
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QUESTION: There is not more to the story than my roommate told me. I was not in the car with my roommate. We thouroughly explained that we did not want to get our car fixed becuase it is an older car and we can not afford to pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed we explained what happened and how the other driver was rear ended us. They said at first well if you change your mind and you want to make a claim let us know. Then they sent us the letter saying that they determined that my roommate was at fault when we had already explained to them what had happened, and how the driver rear ended me.
ANSWER: There is no need for you to pay out of pocket. if the other driver was at fault, they should handle your repairs under his policy. No cost to you. Age of vehicle is irrelevant, unless it is a total loss, in which case they simply pay you the value of the vehicle.
If there really is nothing more to the story, you should be fighting them for payment.
Obviously the other driver says there is more to the story, or they would not have denied the claim. You really need to speak to the claim rep to find out why they are saying you are at fault. This makes no sense.
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QUESTION: We are not looking to get our car fixed the other drivers mercury insurance policy is sending us letters saying we owe them for their car repair basically what it sounds like the letter is saying is they paid for their insured persons repairs now we have to reimburse them which makes no sense to me or my roommate since they already paid for their insured motorists car to be fix. If we were the ones who hit their car we would gladly take full responsible for their car damages but they smacked into my car and rear ended my car. I am looking to get this matter resolved asap. Do you think that contacting legal aid and having them handle this is the best option since we know we are at fault and are sick of being taken advantage of and harassed by mercury insurance for something that was not our fault anyways thanks so much for all of your expert advice i really appreciate it.
AnswerYour best option today is to call the claim rep and find out why they say you are at fault. Maybe this is a simple mistake. Or maybe the other driver says your roommate cut him off and caused the accident. At this point you do not know.
Again, if the other driver was at fault, you should seek to be reimbursed for your damages, in addition to helping them udnerstand they should not be seeking payment from you.
This is not the type of case that legal aid nomally handles.
