QuestionI was at a stop light completely stopped when I was rear ended and it caused large scratches and paint damage to my rear bumper, there was a police report and I told the police officer where the damage was located but indicated that the dent was from a previous accident. Because of that State Farm is refusing to pay for the damainge incurred by the most recent accident even though the police report deemed it the other drivers fault. State Farm is claiming that since there was previous other damage they are not liable to pay for the current damage. Is this correct? Thank you for taking your time to respond.
AnswerJaime,
Sorry for the delay! Okay, so this is a trick question! Not really, but sort of. . . .
1. Do you have a photo or estimate of the prior damage before this accident occurred? If you do, then you can look at the damage amount from the prior damage and then take that amount out of the damage that is there now. This should be what State Farm attempts to do.
2. If you don't have a photo or estimate, then you will have a hard time proving how much of your damage is new and how much is old. If you can't prove the amount of damages caused by the other party, then it is going to be hard to get them to pay anything.
Generally speaking, prior damage is simply that, prior damage. If the prior damage is such that the damaged part would have to be replaced, then any new damage to that part is irrelevant, the part needed replacing anyway, follow? If the old damage was just scratch or something and could have been repaired for $50 bucks or something, then when someone crashes into the vehicle and destroys the bumper, the insurance company can take the $50.00 repair cost off the cost of replacing the bumper. I hope this makes sense. The answer to your question depends on how bad the prior damage is and how bad the new damage is. The damages have to be itemized separately.
JP
