Auto Insurance Claims: denied insurance claim, claim denied, claims settlement

Question
My son was the middle car in a three car chain reaction accident. The person who hit him is claiming to his insurance company that he is not responsible for the accident. He stated that he tapped my sons back bumper after my son already rear ended the first car. This is a complete lie. My son's car is worth under $3000 and we carry liability only on it. Our car is a VW Golf which got pushed under an SUV causing extensive damage (our car is totaled). Because of the claim of the carrier to his insurance company, our claim has been denied. I called the insurance carrier and spoke to a supervisor and they won't change their decision on the claim. Their insurance never called my son or the person in the first car to get our sides. Both my insurance company and the insurance company for the car we were pushed into state that the last car caused the accident due to the statements and police report. The police report, however, does contain a bottom notation regarding the third car's version of events. What can I do to?

Answer
Hello Lisa,

They never contacted either of the other 2 drivers for their statements!

Insurance companies are required to conduct investigations of all claims.  Clearly there was not an investigation done here.  To the contrary, one can only assume that "believing" their own insured was by far the most cost effective choice.

In the absence of supporting evidence, an insurance company should "believe it's own insured".  However, this does not mean that it is acceptable for any insurance company to pick and choose where or if they will gather evidence.  Clearly that is the case here.

As for the police report, while an insurance company can consider it in ADDITION to other evidence, it is not a valid means for determining liability.  The police officer is not any more of a witness to the accident than the adjuster is!

Shoddy and unfair.

What can you do?  Unfortunately, probably nothing.  I've written countless articles about the flaws of insurance company liability decisions.  If there were serious damages, serious injuries, you could conceivably file a lawsuit.  But in this case, that would not be cost effective for you, and you probably could not find an attorney who would be interested.  You could consider small claims court on your own, suing the other driver.  But it is basically one against one.  You could lose.

In the future, seriously consider consider collision insurance under two conditions:  if the yearly premiums do not exceed the value of the vehicle, and/or if you cannot afford to replace the vehicle.