Auto Insurance Claims: Auto Accident with Permissive Use., Auto Accident with Permissive Use, fault

Question
I was going through an intersection when a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction failed to yield at the green light make a left turn causing me to hit the vehicle. Their were two witnesses placing blame on the other vehicle, and a police report was wrote up the accident report as such. The driver of the vehicle was not the owner, but the owner of the vehicle was a passenger in the automobile when the accident took place. I filed a claim with the vehicle owner's insurance. The adjuster handling the case said that their insurance company would probably only pay 50% of damages being that the driver was responsible for the accident, and that I would need to file a claim with the driver's insurance to recover the only 50% paid. Coincidentally, the driver and I are customers of the same insurance company, and I only have liability coverage. My question is that I fill that the vehicle's insurance should pay a 100%, and if they fill that the driver was responsible then they go after his insurance policy to retrieve any loss they taken. Being that the driver has permissive use of the vehicle. Is this correct??? Help please!!!

Answer
Hello Marvin,

I hope you are okay and that you were not hurt or anything like that.

The way this type of claim works depends on the coverage you have.

If you only have liability insurance, then in an essence, you are insuring your own vehicle (even if someone else damages it and it is not your fault) and the policy you have insureds the damages you cause to someone's car if you are any percentage at fault at all.

So in this case, if the insurance company feels that you are 50% at fault, your insurance will have to pay the other person 50% of their damage. The other driver will have to pay you 50% of your damage. If you believe you are not at fault at all, then you need to persue your own damages either by going to small claims court (taking the other driver to court) or having a lawyer do that for you. If you had collision, then your insurance company would have paid your damages and then go after the other driver (probably in an intercompany arbitration action).

At any rate, please see http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/small-claims-court.html and http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/Fault-for-the-Accident.html for more info.

I hope this helps some,
Good Luck
Anne
http://www.quirogalawoffice.com/