Auto Insurance Claims: Auto Collision due to fallen object from another car, brake rotor, value of car

Question
A person was driving a vehicle without a tire..driving on the rim. The brake rotor fell off. Shortly after, it was dark and my son & his girlfriend came around corner and hit it. We went through our ins co & they totaled the car due to frame damage. Rec'd value of car minus deductible. Due to black marks on road from rim dragging, the police dept found the person and residence of who was responsible for this. We contacted their ins co however got the run around and they only wanted to settle at $250. I have a police report indicating this. However, they did not give this person a citation for some reason.  Can we file against their ins company for our deductible ($500), damages & for the loss of the monthly payments my son made. He only had it for a few months before this happened. He took a loss of down payment, deductible, and over $600 in car taxes. In the meantime, My ins co covered this accident which was over #13,000 to get us taken care of and now my rates will go up.  I'd like to go after this person or their ins co so that this can be removed from my insurance company. In the meantime, my son had to use the $13,000 to payoff other car and had a small amt left over to use towards another car. We took a big loss in which this other person should be responsible for... Thank you so much for your help.

Answer
Pamela,

Your insurance company should be in the process of subrogation in which they recover their costs in the claim. Once this is done, you should receive a check for your deductible from your company. However, in some cases an insurance company will not subrogate with the liability carrier of the at-fault party. You should contact your company to see what the status of the subrogation is.

If your company is not subrogating the loss, then you are able to file a claim with the other party's liability carrier. Apparently you have already contacted them and got a low ball offer. You should understand that an insurance company has no legal duty to you whatsoever, but their insured does. You should send a certified letter to that person with a demand that they compensate you for your losses due to their negligence. Bear in mind that all claims made as a third party under liability coverage are subject to whatever a court decides, so you must make a compelling argument with the liability carrier of the other person in order to get them to settle the claim.

If you don't get anywhere with the other insurance company, you will be forced to take legal action against their insured. However, based on your account of the accident they may blame you for hitting the debris on the road, so keep this in mind before you take that route and incur legal expenses or court filng fees. Small claims court have limits for the amount one can make a claim for, so check with the magistrate in the jurisdiction of the at fault party or where the accident took place. In my state, the limit is $8000, and anything above that has to be taken to district court where you will need a lawyer.

Charlie