Amen to that! Believe me, I'm not just going to drop this, I'm going to tell whoever I need to tell to get this corrected, so that it doesn't happen to someone else.

Sorry to hear about your accident psych S

In Minnesota, you are supposed to call the police to the scene of an accident no matter how small it is (even fender benders) so that there is an official record of fault etc. Not all states require that drivers be insured...I'm pretty sure Wisconsin doesn't.

Definately call the police and fill out a report even now after the fact, they should be able to help quide you through whatever needs to be done.

Hope you get everything taken care of

~ Gretch

I had something similar happen and I live in a different state but I will tell you what happened to me. The lady claimed she had insurance but when I was making the claim I found out she didn't have any so I had to go through my own insurance.

I had to pay the deductible and the insurance company paid the rest. In turn the insurance companies and their lawyers are going after the woman to recoup their money and my deductible (although I'm not really planning on seeing it since she didn't seem to have any money).

It didn't effect my rates because I was not at fault although I was told if I have a second non-fault accident it will count as 1. Apparantly two non-faults equal one at fault accident for some reason.

But where I think you shot yourself in the foot is that you didn't call the police immediately. In Minnesota you are required by law to call the police if the damage is greater than $500 (which is pretty much any accident) I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure you cannot fill out an accident report from anywhere but the accident scene with both parties present so it might be too late. I would check into because I think that it's vital that you have one.

But anyway I'm not sure that your insurance company and the lawyers are going to be able to protect you without a police report and I'm not sure you would have any luck in a civil lawsuit without a police report either.

It's a tough situation but I would say that it is best to call the Police in ANY accident just to be safe.

I know how you feel though because I'm still pissed I had to pay the deductible in my case.

EskomoKisses said:

Thanks, I appreciate it.

lovemachine said:

Two non-fault accidents equal one at fault accident? Wonder why and how they came up with that, since a no fault accident is just that, and the victim should not be penalized. I know, I probably did screw up by not calling the police at the scene of the accident. It happened so quickly, and there was a guy in the car behind us hollering at us to "move it over to the side" when there were cars going past us in both lanes, so I think part of it too was that I just wanted to get out of everyone's way. I would be pissed too if I had to pay the deductible because the person who hit me did not have insurance. I can't believe that people are even allowed to drive a car without having some kind of coverage, since accidents DO happen. Thanks for responding.
[Edited 9/23/04 9:17am]

Update on this story: I just got off the phone with my insurance company. Turns out that the reason why I got the letter about not having coverage for this claim is because the person who hit me did not have insurance to cover other car(s) in an accident. I said to the insurance agent, "Isn't that illegal; aren't you supposed to have coverage?" She replied that yes it was illegal, and that Ohio has "strict laws" saying that if you were found not to have this coverage, you could be fined. I felt like saying, "Well, why isn't this person being fined then?"

The good news is that the insurance company is going to try to get the $250 deductible up front from the person who hit me. They told me that, in the meantime, I should take my car in to get an estimate. I asked them if my insurance would be effected if they were unable to get the deductible from the other person, if I had to go through my insurance. They said that no, it would not affect it.

Wish me luck, hopefully this person will up their coverage so that they have coverage in case this were to happen again. I would hope that they would, after this experience, if not, something is definitely wrong with their way of thinking. According to my insurance agent, this person has 3 vehicles covered with State Farm. I'm still puzzled as to why they don't have "other car" coverage, but the insurance agent said that sometimes the salesperson is supposed to make sure that they have all the coverage that they need transferred to a new vehicle, but for some reason, they don't always follow up to be sure that the coverage is correct.

I will keep you posted. Thanks to all who responded.