Auto Insurance Claims: Ins. Claim 1 year after accident, fender bender, insurance info

Question
Hello, about a year ago 5/2008 I was involved in a fender bender with another driver. I was parallel parked and was pulling out when she hit me in my front driver side door.I checked before I pulled out but didn't see her. I thought until yesterday that she was in my blind spot, however, in court she stated that she lived 2 doors down from where the accidnet happened. So now I'm thinking she wasn't there when I looked and she wiped around the car behind me right as I was pulling out. She had to be going pretty fast since I was not moving and she BANGED into my car. I had very little damage to my vehicle but she had a dent and a broken light. At the time I was so flustered I felt it was my fault but she didn't want to call the police. We estimated that it was about 500.00 damage to her vehicle and so I verbally agreed to pay the cost to repair. Also, this was not my vehicle I was driving it belonged to a friend. At the time of the accident I offered to give her my insurance info but she said she didn't want to go thru ins. she said she was afraid it would be on her driving record and she already had some other accidents on her record, plus she gave me a sob story about her ex husband and her kids ( not sure what that had to do with it)So I agreed that I would just pay her out of pocket.  Well then the cost to fix her car kept going up. First it was 500.00 then 900.00 then all of the sudden it's 2500.00. At this point I am getting suspicious and feel that she is making up these numbers. I asked her to fax me 3 estimates to which she replied " I don't have time to be driving all over town to get estimates!" She also claims she mailed me 2 estimates but I never got them. I said let's go thru insurance send me your info, and I gave her my fax number. She started screaming at me and hung up. I never heard from her again. At this point I figured she was trying to scam me and she knew the ins. company would figure her out. Well then 10 months later I get a summons to appear in court, she is suing me for 2500.00. In court the judge basically wanted to know why we were even there since the vehicle was insured, and just ordered her to give me her contact info and for me to give her the ins. info. Well turns out that the vehicle is no longer insured under the same company that it was in May of 2008, my friend got new ins. in Oct. of 08. My question to you is... even if he had the same ins. would an ins. company pay a claim from an accident that happened almost a full year ago. Plus the amount she is suing me for is 1921.00 for damages she claims are from the accident and 579.00 for a rental car. Am I or my ins. responsible for her rental car? Does she have a case against me personally if the insurance won't pay since she waited a year to contact them, plus the owner of the car no longer even has ins. with this company? Do I need to be worried that she is going to get a personal claim against me for 2500.00

Answer
Hi Sara,

Not to worry. You should simply report the claim to your friends insurance company (at the time of the accident). You will need to explain to them that you were trying to handle on your own but the amount just kept going up and then resulted in the court case.

Yes you are responsible for a rental car during the repair process, but the insurance company will cover that as well. There should be no reason this will not be covered.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh