QuestionQUESTION: Hey Bennie,
I got a call from Allstate yesterday. I didn't answer and they left a message.
The caller was Amber Zapata, the first person to call me re: my accident on June 9, 2008. She was the one who identified herself as the other party's adjuster at the end of the call.
Following is her message left on my voicemail-
"Hi, this message is for Ian(my first name). This is Amber Zapata, and I'm calling from Allstate Insurance, Claims Dept., about an auto accident.
I'm calling to take...um...actually, oh...I'm calling to let you know that I did receive notification that...um...you did...um...get favor over this auto claim. We have an estimate on file for $3353.24. What I could do is... I could go ahead and issue a payment for that amount, um...if not, then I would wait for a copy of the paperwork to be received, um...I have not received it yet, um...My fax# is ********. When you call, reference the claim#*********.If you fax me...paperwork, please include the claim# on the paperwork you send me."
From this call I have several questions for you. I did not want to speak with Allstate prior to speaking with you. Her message was very polite, but she did show some nervousness when trying to describe my small claims judgement, and referred to the whole affair as "an auto accident", instead of a rearend. She may still have this all written up as a 'sideswipe'.
But the money first...
i) I faxed Allstate the judgement 2-3 weeks ago. I faxed it to another person (Kim) in the same office, because Amber was not available when I called prior to faxing. The judgement was for $2380.00, so I don't understand why she is saying that she will issue a payment for $3353.24, which was the original Allstate estimate for visible damages only.
The $2380.00 was what I asked for in court because it was what I felt the van's value to be. Can I accept the offer of 3k, or would that be considered insurance fraud?
ii) Is it reasonable to believe her when she says that she has not received, or seen the paperwork (judgement)? Could it have been hastily sent to their legal people without ever having shown it to Amber? Further...could the legal dept. then simply have told Amber to "take care of this, it's your problem," without knowing she hadn't seen it?
Or is this some attempt to set me up so that I will have to give some money back to Allstate when the 'error' is discovered?
iii) If I am entitled to accept the larger amount, then I'm thinking of not speaking in person with her, but leaving her a message saying that her offer to "...issue a payment for that amount," (which is the Allstate visible damages amount) is fine with me. A conversation with her could lead to questions I would prefer not to answer in this case, like the amount of the judgement.
MY POSITION-
After the money issue is settled, I feel that it is a good idea to inquire of Allstate as to their accounting of my accident, and to discover whatever it's nature is on my Allstate record, ie used to raise my rates?,percentage responsibility assigned to me?
Should they give me this information without a problem?
I think I should stop at this point and allow you to advise me on my next step.
I want you to know that I feel comfortable asking you questions, and regard your advice as 'sound', and am very grateful for this service that you are providing.
I hope that you can effectively weed my questions out of my 'Question'.
Sincerely,
Castle
ANSWER: Hi Castle,
As I mentioned in one of my earlier answers, the judgement documents
probably had Allstate's legal department pulling out their hair and it would take about 3 weeks for you to get a response.
Your fax of the judgement would have gone directly to the legal department. They would then have ordered a supervisor to take the
entire file from the adjuster and deliver it to the legal department.
Once received, they reviewed the entire file and probably listened
to the recording of her securing your statement. They then realized that the adjuster used subterfuge in obtaining your statement and then denied your claim even though the police report is very clear
that each of you had changed lanes.
California Insurance Law requires that an insurance company deals
with you in "Good Faith", to do otherwise would be acting in
"Bad Faith" and opens the door for a lawsuit against Allstate.
Such a lawsuit would not only include your damages, but an amount for putative damages. I have seen many putative damage suits
settled for in excess of One Million Dollars.
It's very possible that your case is not strong enough for putative damages, but every insurance company is scared of what might happen in court. Juries have been known to make humungous awards on cases that appear to have no value.
In my opinion, Allstate does not want to risk having to deal with
you in a court room, so the legal department has ordered the adjuster to make your case go away by paying you the full amount of their estimate of damages.
There is no way that the company is trying to 'set' you up so they can later demand a partial refund.
You mentioned that the adjuster wants certain documents from you, but
never mentioned exactly what.
If you are within 25-30 minutes of the office of the claims adjuster,
you should call the adjuster and make an appointment to bring by the documents and pick up the check.
Otherwise, I would recommend that you tell the adjuster to go ahead and issue a check to you for $3353.24 and you will fax her the documents the same day that you receive the check.
As far as your other concern regarding your records with Allstate,
you should (after you have the settlement) contact her supervisor
to make sure that your records have been re-coded to reflect this
as being a 100% non fault accident.
Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hey Bennie,
Thank you for your quick response.
The adjuster told me in the message on my phone that she had "...heard" about my getting "...favor over this claim", but claimed to have not seen or received the judgement documents herself. Those were the documents that I had faxed to Allstate 3 weeks ago.
She expressed a willingness to issue a payment to me of the initial Allstate damage estimate, or wait for me to fax her a copy of the small claims judgement, which I had already faxed to Allstate.
Based on your comment to the effect of my fax having gone straight to Allstate's legal dept., I can now believe her when she said that she had not seen or received those documents.
I guess the Allstate legal people did not consider it important to show her the judgement documents that I had already faxed them. I believe that she would like to see the judgement, but I would just as soon have her own people at Allstate show them to her if they see fit. I don't wish to rub her nose in the $1,000 benefit that I am receiving from her unwillingness to have resolved this case in the appropriate fashion from the very beginning.
I'm basing the '$1,000 benefit' figure on my belief that had she settled this case appropriately in the beginning, my van would have been deemed 'totaled', and they would have payed me the value of my van ($2,300), and taken the van for scrap value. So now they're paying me $1,000 more than what my van was worth, and they don't get the van for it's scrap value.
This really isn't a question, just some comments to clear up what I hadn't made clear already.
And yes, I did recall your previous comment about giving Allstate 3 weeks to respond. You were right on, and I appreciate it.
I believe this problem will be be wrapped up shortly.
Thank you again!
ANSWER: Hi Castle,
If the adjuster hasn't seen the judgement yet, she may be basing her offer on the estimate in file. Once she sees that the judgement is only $2,380, she may try to reduce her check to that amount.
If that happens, you may have to threaten a "Bad Faith" lawsuit in
order to get the payment of $3,323.54.
Since there was a written estimate for $3,323.54 already on file, you should have ask for that amount in your small claims filing instead of an amount that you felt represented the value of your vehicle.
Bennie
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hey Bennie,
I'm back, and here's why- I got the call from Ms. Zapata on Friday afternoon, that I told you about.
I called her on Sunday to leave a message and discovered that the number she called from has no voicemail.
So I called her on another number of hers that I already had, and left her a message saying that the $3,353.24 payment was fine with me, and that I would prefer to pick it up, but that if she needed to send it, then send it to my address. I also asked her to tell me which way I should expect to receive it.
Since she didn't return my call as of Monday afternoon, I called her again and asked for her and was put onto her voicemail number. I left her another message asking her to call me and tell me what's going on.
I have not heard from her since her Friday call.
Based on their handling of my claim, I feel reasonably certain that she is trying to jerk my chain.
This is the 2nd time they have offered to pay this amount to me. I now feel that the whole claim was treated sincerely from the very beginning. At first I thought it was, and that after the first two weeks of my claim, my adjuster was required to go along with Ms. Zapata's plan. Now it's looking different to me, and I'm not only ready to threaten a bad faith lawsuit, I'm fine with the idea of actually doing it.
Just so you know, the only lawsuit I have ever filed in my life (I'm 55), was the small claims suit against the other party in this matter.
So my question(s) is/are- What do I do now, how long should I wait?
Sincerely,
Castle
AnswerHi Castle,
It may be that you are only legally entitled to the amount of the small claims judgement. Since I'm not an attorney, I can't provide an answer for that issue.
I've been in this business for 48 years and this is the first case
that I've seen where someone filed small claims for less than the
estimate.
You need to keep trying to reach the adjuster for one more discussion
before you attempt any action. If, after a couple more attempts she doesn't call you then you should call the office and ask to speak to
her supervisor and play the tape of her message stating that she was willing to pay you $3353.24 and how you have responded to her and not received any return calls.
I believe that her actions starting with falsely stating that she was your adjuster up to the point that she is still delaying payment
border on bad faith.
If you don't get results soon and decide to look into filing a bad faith claim, then you will need to deal with one of the larger law firms that have experience in this field. You didn't mention your city of residence, but you should search for an attorney in the closest metropolitan area such as Redding, Sacramento, Stockton,
SF bay area including San Jose, Fresno or the LA basin.
Keep me posted and send any question when you think that I might be helpful.
Good luck,
Bennie
