Auto Insurance Claims: Uninsured Motorists, auto body shop, uninsured motorists

Question
I was in a car accident on 5/15/07, let me give you the scenario, a school bus stopped to drop off children the vehicle in front of me stopped I stopped and the car behind me did not, she hit me so hard that I hit the car in front of me, thank goodness the school bus had pulled off.  Anyway the police came and did not want to travel via an ambulance I felt it was an unnecessary cost,  however I took my truck to a nearby friends house and then went to the hospital due to at the time of the accident I was 8 months pregnant, first I went to the emergency room and waited for an hour after receiving no help, I went to the womens hospital and was checked in immediately. I was having contractuations and was given medicine to stop them and kept overnight actually until PM the next day to make sure the baby was okay and the contractuations had stopped.  I contacted some PCP offices and were informed by most that there was nothing they could do for the slight pain I had in my upper back due to I was pregnant however I found one and saw him and was provided some muscle relaxers. Since visiting him I have had pain in my right hip and foot. The lady who hit me in the back did not have any insurance so this claim is being done under my uninsured motorists, my medical examiner came and saw me and offered me 750.00 for my pain, is this normal?  I declined her offer and told her that I would wait until after I had my baby to settle anything.  Next issue the damage on my vehicle came to 5600 which I paid 200.00 of and now have found out that this is now due back to me. The repair shop had my vehicle for 21 days during which time I had a rental car which I had to end up paying 500.00 for when I received my truck  back my air conditioning was not working properly, I took it back to the auto body shop and was informed that they did not touch the air conditioning and my insurance rep told me to take it to a dealership and I would have to prove it was from the accident. I did as I was told and was informed that it could have been from the wreck but they could not promise that so I was out of pocket 388.00.  Please help me I don't know what to do I feel like the insurance company Nationwide is full of bull and the body shop I took my truck to is as well.  How much compensation is enough and help is better than know.  I am so frustrated. I am out of 1000.00 this week alone all because I stopped behind a school bus.

Answer
Hi Clarissa,

Insurance companies can be very frustrating.

Your bodily injury settlement should be 2 times the total of your medical expenses, assuming you were treated and released. If your injuries required ongoing treatment, then the value of your claim could be 3 to 10 times the medical expenses depending on the severity of the injuries and length of treatment.

As for your car, there is not much you can do about the A/C. Unless it can be directly related, it's hard to prove.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh