Lynne

Property Damage - Dpending on the type of coverage you have, some insurance companies will pay out the property damage then subrogate with the driver at fault's insurance company. Other than that, they will not intervene. Usually a lawyer will not get involved with property damage unless there is a big discrepancy in what they agree to pay then they usually recommend suing them yourself in Small Claims Court. Most prooperty damage claims are settled easily.

Personal Injury - GET CHECKED OUT. I have seen no end of cases where people have wrecks, don't get checked out then six months later have a problem. At that point it is very difficult to prove that the injury you then complain of is as a direct result of the wreck. The insurance company are not going to believe you saying "i must have done it in the wreck". They will want documents proof from the ER or your own doctor. When you get checked out make sure the doctor notes on your record that you went because of the wreck and the date. A lot of people go to their doctor but don't tell them this then when I go through the records there is no evidence of a wreck. Again, the insurance companies will try and pay out as little as they can for any claim.

With your wife being pregnant it is especially important and you need to document everything in case she has a complication that could be attributed to the wreck. There are statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit.

For general information, and which won't apply to you since its a truck with probably a multi million dollar policy, but if you have UM (uninsured) or UIM (underinsured) coverage you can make a claim on your own insurance. Also check and see if you have medpay coverage on your own policy. This ranges from $1,000.00 to $10,000.00 and you can claim this from your insurance company to help with co pays and anything that is not covered by your medical insurance. But be warned, they may have a subrogation claim if you recover personal injury damages.

Always get your health insurance to pay the bills. It actually saves you money in the end if and when you recover from the other insurance company. Yes, you will have to subrogate with your health insurance but remember they get a big discount so the subrogation claim will be a lot less than paying the entire medical bill. In Alabama the Common Fund Doctrine applies which means if you hire an attorney subrogation claims can be reduced by the percentage of your legal fees, (usualy one third).

You may not be considering hiring a lawyer at this time but here is some advice in the meantime. Make a note of all the medical providers you see, names, addresses, phone numbers, and dates. Keep a journal of your injuries, what you can and can't do. This helps evaluating your case and the pain and suffering aspect. Don't procrastinate with treatment. It is easy to have a sore back and let it ride. Most of all don't settle with the insurance company until you have completed your treatment. Settlement is a one shot deal. I have seen where people get a good offer from the insurance company, take it, then six months down the road need some kind of surgery which they cannot recover for. You sign a FULL RELEASE whcih is exactly that.

Sorry this is long winded, but it's complicated and sometimes easy to overlook the simple things.

Good luck.

SpoogleDrummer

Thanks for that. We do have uninsured motorists, still have no response from either the driver or his company as to the name of his insurance company and now Geico are trying to contact them too. Geico have already said it's that's not effective they'll treat it as an uninsured motorist case. We're also considering talking to the police about it, if the guy provided incorrect documentation to the police for the police report then I doubt they'll be happy, I'm hoping to avoid it but the more they ignore our calls the angrier it makes us.

SpoogleDrummer

Just an update on this. My wife rang Geico again and they were very apologetic about not helping before. They started ringing the driver and the company. After about a week of trying they finally got an answer from the driver's mom, she gave them another number to call. Turns out the driver hadn't bothered reporting the accident until Saturday. But we found out his insurance company is Progressive, filed a claim with them and hopefully they'll send someone out to look at the car and see if they'll fix it or scrap it. If they fix it they'll give us a rental or just write us a cheque and we'll get it fixed ourselves.

Rete

Our nugget has officially claimed status as a male. According to my daughter his third leg was easily detected.

Rete

Great on the giant step in your accident claim. GEICO will probably recommend Enterprise. That's the company they recommended I use when someone hit me.

ILM

always pays to ring again in these circumstances, you may get the new kid that knows nothing on the 1st call,especially when they wern't going to help in the begining.
I had the same thing with the hsbc bank here in the US took about 6 calls talking to yes men who said they would resolve my issues and never did, it took a visit and sat there in the bank till it was sorted.

well done for getting them on your side and hopefully a good resolve to this.

ILM

SpoogleDrummer

That was the same with ours Must be a year for boys, last year everyone I know had girls.

As for the insurance they totalled the car but said we could keep it so my wife now has a cheque and a (hopefully) easily repairable car. Just need to find out how much it will cost to fix before we decide if it's worth it or just scrap it and get another car.