Ignoring an Insurance Claim in Texas (estate, property, good)

[aaauger]

Originally Posted by Poltracker

You need to file a case in court. Chances are that the insured party will call his insuarnce carrier the moment he gets served. If he does not....well, he did have a car and he may have other assets. Don't assume he doesn't have any.

This person appeared to be a migrant worker.

[buzzpost]

Originally Posted by aaauger

A month ago, a driver caused an accident and provided us with insurance information. According to the insurance carrier, the driver won't respond to the claim. According to Texas Department of Insurance, the insurance carrier has no further responsibility and we would have to file a claim in civil court. But here's the weird part: if the driver has no assets, we will receive nothing, even though the driver was insured. Isn't the point of mandated insurance to provide financial responsibility? Why buy insurance if you have no assets? What's the insurance carrier's incentive to contact the insured?

Side note: Why not file against our own insurance? Because we would pay a deductible and our premium would increase (regardless of fault). Insurance companies will only subrogate a claim above a certain dollar amount.

That's insane. You will get your money if you take them to court. Any lawyer worth his/her salt will take this case pro-bono and sue them for all they are worth. But I'll guarantee you that they'll settle out of court, and big time if they are smart.

[expatChicagoan]

Originally Posted by aaauger

We pointed out that we are in possession of complete data on the driver: policy, address, driver, etc. The insurance carrier's response? We could have committed identity theft to obtain this information.

I don't have any advice for this time around, but next time this happens to you, use your cell phone to take a picture of the other driver, along with their D/L. That's what I did when I was rear-ended a couple of weeks back by a teenager... hard to claim identity theft that way

[Pruzhany]

If he has basic liability coverage then that only covers bodily injury. If you carry collision submit it your ins co. If neither of you have collision then you are out of luck. Sueing someone with no assets gets you nothing even if you win. Insurance is required for bodily damage and not property damage.

TRANSPORTATION CODE**CHAPTER 601. MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY RESPONSIBILITY ACT

[aaauger]

Originally Posted by NeilVA

If he has basic liability coverage then that only covers bodily injury. If you carry collision submit it your ins co. If neither of you have collision then you are out of luck. Sueing someone with no assets gets you nothing even if you win. Insurance is required for bodily damage and not property damage.

TRANSPORTATION CODE**CHAPTER 601. MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY RESPONSIBILITY ACT

Give that person a prize. So here's another hole in Texas vehicle insurance law. Vehicle liability insurance implies that it protects the victim from loss - regardless of its cause. In fact, some states allow proof of financial liability in lieu of insurance. I.e. You cause a loss; you are able to cover it.

The other driver in this case does have property liability insurance but apparently that's random.

[dijkstra]

This is why I give an insurance one chance and one chance only to do what they are supposed to do......pay the claim. I contact them myself personally one time and if they do anything other than mail me a check such as making excuses or telling me I need to do this or that, my next call is then to my attorney and he handles it from there. Usually all he has to do is give them a call and let them know I'm not going to play their game and then magically all of the sudden they can process the claim.

[aaauger]

How much does your attorney charge? :-)

[loves2read]

just for the sake of clarity--would you care to share the name of the insurance company for the other driver--
I wonder how hard they have tried to contact the driver--
and if you are right about the driver being "migrant worker" I would wonder if he was illegal and has made himself scarce because he is afraid he will be targeted by la migra for this traffic accident--and sent back to his home country--
if he understood that is unlikely to happen IF he participates in the insurance filing vs being taken to court personally for damages (even if he does not have the resources to pay them) then he might be more amenable to filing

[aaauger]

Good points. Without naming the insurance company, TDI did say that it had compaints for failure to process claims. How do we get proof of their due diligence? Do we have a right to obtain it? Regardless, we have friends who speak Spanish fluently. Maybe one of them can contact the driver and explain the possible outcomes.

If I'm correct, Texas created the insurance verification database (whatever it is called) to ensure that everyone has insurance. However if someone has insurance but is afraid to use it, it's the same as being uninsured.

[Philip T]

Sounds like Fred Loya?

That is not too hard to guess.

There target customer-base are illegals or barely-legals.

The method to deal with them is Civil Lawsuits. Name both the person who hit you AND Loya as defendants.

They will pay according to how much of their own attorney costs they are hoping to avoid.

So be ready to create a lot of interrogatory, additional hearings, summary judgments, etc.

When their own lawyers start costing them too much, they will likely pay.