Vehicle Accident – Small claims court?

Last week I was rear ended by an uninsured driver (driver was ticketed for no insurance). The driver hit me doing 40/50 mph (I was stopped) and their car appeared to be totaled. I was able to drive away in my F150 with what appears to be mainly damage to the tailgate/bumper/tow hitch and some minor damage to the bed (inspection will be in 3 weeks). Everyone walked away without any major injuries.

I am responsible for the $1000 deductible and my insurance will attempt to collect from the other driver. If the other driver doesn’t pay it just goes to collections and I am not sure I will ever see anything.

My question is is it worth it to go to small claims court? I have the time to do it and live close to a courthouse so I don’t mind putting in the time.

Just wish I hadn’t changed my policy a few month ago from my $500 deductible. No accidents for the past 15-20 years then two separate issues only months after making the change. Go figure.

40-50mph and you were stopped? I bet there is gonna be a lot more damage to your truck than you think. Hopefully your insurance can get the money out of the low life with no insurance

My parents went through a similar scenario. IMO, the problem is the difference between getting a judgment against the perp versus actually being able to collect the money.

Your insurance company will already have tried to collect, so if they fail, what are the chances you will ever see any money from another judgment against the POS? And how long and how much work will it take you?

Unfortunately, this is a pretty common story as it is still WAY too easy for douchebags to provide insurance to get plates and then cancel it the next day to get a refund. Why in this day and age we can’t have a better system, I have no idea.

This same thing happened to me. The courts put a lean against the lady that hit me with no insurance. 6 years later I still haven’t seen a dollar

Why is inspection in 3 weeks. Bring it to a shop immediately for a first quote. They can do it on site and then give that first inspection to the adjuster

Once you turn the claim into your insurance they assume all recovery rights. more than likely they will not be able to recover. if you do ever get any money back it will be years.

3 weeks seems a long ways out. I was t-boned 2+ years ago, dude just pulled out of a parking lot right into me (never looked my way), just body damage to me, totaled his (to be fair his vehicle was one backfire away from dying anyway), I took it to my preffered shop that afternoon and had a quote to give to insurance next day. This was fall of 2021 so took 3 months for parts to come in though. Other guy was insured (bare minimum required) so my insurance company went after them but I didn’t get my deductible back till last fall (just short of a year after it happened). Not sure how normal that is as never dealt with this before, first claim in 22 years.

You have no fault insurance. Your only out of pocket will be the deductible. If you win a small claim judgement file a lien against the person. That will F up their credit forever. You might not get anything more than that satisfaction.

I would also be cautious not to close the insurance claim. If the speed was what you say it was you could have some medical issues down the road that aren’t apparent right now. In a case like this spending a few hundred talking to a lawyer might not be the worse money spent.

Good luck.

Doesn’t your insurance policy have uninsured motorist coverage?

maddogg wrote:

Doesn’t your insurance policy have uninsured motorist coverage?

Yep, it does. I am just asking for sake of the deductible.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Why is inspection in 3 weeks. Bring it to a shop immediately for a first quote. They can do it on site and then give that first inspection to the adjuster

That is the earliest I could get into the shop down the road. I will check around and see about getting it in earlier.

Unfortunately the people driving without insurance just don’t care. If they don’t’ care about that, they won’t care about a judgement or any bill. Unless you can convince them to go on Judge Judy where there is a guaranteed appearance fee, taking them to court will probably cost you a lot of time and headaches. Time is a lot more valuable than money, especially when you are talking about 1,000 or less and these people and the courts really know how to waste your time.

Yeah, they system sucks.

Coletrain27 wrote:

40-50mph and you were stopped? I bet there is gonna be a lot more damage to your truck than you think. Hopefully your insurance can get the money out of the low life with no insurance

Frankly I was expecting to get out and find a lot worse damage, I was surprised that I was able to drive away. There may be more damage that what I can see, I do have a slight harmonic vibration now at 50 mph which is why I think that. I was hit by what I believe to have been a Chevy Traverse, the front end was totally smashed in.

Attachments:

1. 

   Truck.jpg
   

311hemi wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Why is inspection in 3 weeks. Bring it to a shop immediately for a first quote. They can do it on site and then give that first inspection to the adjuster

That is the earliest I could get into the shop down the road. I will check around and see about getting it in earlier.

Where are you located ? Call my lady friend and fareway she will get you in today at that shop or bills if your close to forest lake or vadanais

I just thought that’s what all fords looked like in the rear.
Not worth it imo that is what the insurance company is for. Been there done that.

Just about any dealer should be able to give you an estimate. May as well get the process started to get the truck looking nice again.

In looking at the photo I wonder where you got the 40-50 mph figure from if you were stopped. Thats not a 50 mph hit. At 50 mph I would think your frame would be bent and the whole rear end caved in. And then there would be the whiplash issue.

Dutchboy wrote:

In looking at the photo I wonder where you got the 40-50 mph figure from if you were stopped. Thats not a 50 mph hit. At 50 mph I would think your frame would be bent and the whole rear end caved in. And then there would be the whiplash issue.

Might have been 40, but certain wasn’t 20. I was doing 50 had to stop pretty quickly due to a car a few cars ahead making a sudden left hand turn. It wasn’t but a few seconds 3-4 second later that I got it.

My wife was face timing with her kids and her face smacked her phone really good. It bleeding for a while and is still sore over a week later. I’m not sure what speed it would take to total the front end of a traverse but the other driver managed to accomplish it.

Yea I would guess that is less speed as well…. But really it doesn’t matter. On the small claims thing…. Unless it makes you feel better, it is usually all lost time. The individual usually won’t even show up for the court date and then you get an auto verdict that still means next to nothing to someone without insurance anyway. Then you are out the filing fee, serving fee and have to file judgement processing after, all costing you $. Fight the battle to get your truck fixed right and move on being happy no one was hurt.

All this, and the first time you sit in a court room trying to fight this you will have a sick look at the other side of less scrupulous people…. It simply isn’t worth it.

To clear up a few posts on here that have misinformation:

MN is “no fault state” This is for injury only meaning you have coverage for any injuries through your own policy no matter what.

Uninsured motorist coverage: this also only applies to injuries.

Again your insurance company will send them to collections if they do not have coverage.

I have also seen officers give people tickets for no insurance for them just not having their card, but they can supply proof within a couple weeks to get the ticket removed. again your insurance company will look into their coverages and make sure they are in fact uninsured.

The odds of you getting a dime back of your deductible is miniscule. I personally wouldn’t go after it. Even though you’d likely win – “you can’t get blood from a turnip.” Even filing a lien against them likely isn’t going to impact someone who doesn’t care to insure a vehicle.

If this happened in a smaller rural area near where you live and everyone is interconnected, I’d go ahead and share the person’s name and a description of the event with anyone who will listen. A little public smear campaign is still worth something in 2023. I have had very little luck with small claims court over the years for issues we’ve run into. We had an issue with an unpaid local renter for quite some time and won in small claims court…but I haven’t seen a dime. Our strategy has been that we do not hesitate to tell people who doesn’t pay their bills or honor their word.

I would try and seek a judgement against them. A judgement does not expire and if a person needs a mortgage someday, then you would see payment.

I would do a judgement against him just for the satisfaction. These dirt bags rely on people being passive and that’s why they keep doing crap like this.
In Wisconsin, if a driver is at fault and doesn’t pay, their drivers license is pulled if you ask to have it done.
I had a situation many years ago where a 5 day old boat I was trailering home in Milwaukee rush hour traffic spit a wheel off due to faulty lug studs that pulled out of the hub of the trailer and another car hit the tire and was totaled. Thankfully No one was hurt but they sued my insurance for its policy limit when they returned to Florida. My insurance denied the claim by them and said it was the boat dealers fault for supplying me a deffective trailer, boat dealer said it was the boat manufactures fault, boat company said it was the trailer suppliers fault, and on and on. My insurance said not to talk to anyone as I had given a statement to them.
Well I wasn’t good at opening up mail that I wasn’t expecting at the time and about a half yr later I opened up a letter from Wis motor vehicle saying my license had been pulled for non payment of an accident as the people were still trying to get paid. I had been driving for months without a license. I called the state and explained that I had insurance and they reinstated my license saying that when the complaint was filed they put down I didn’t have insurance.
Anyway, I wouldn’t drop it, file a small claim, and also for sure, file a claim with your state motor vehicle and maybe they will pull their license like wisconsin does.

Glad no one was hurt but IMO its not worth going after the driver. My wife was T-boned by an un-insured and under the influence driver and even without a valid license. We never saw a penny. The sheriffs dept issued an arrest warrant to track her down but she was never found. Our vehicle was totaled which really sucked because it was the first new vehicle we bought and it was a great truck.

I had an accident years ago in wis
I only had liability insurance on my vehicle and they had no insurance. I took them to court and won the judgement but the person only worked part time so they probably would have quit work if I would garnished part of their wages so it cost me $40.00 and had their drivers license revoked for 10 years it wasn’t payed up by then I could have it revoked for another 10 years. About 7 years in they came to me and wanted to settle.

Looks like 15-20 mph to me. Was there was any airbags that went off in either vehicle?

Judgements don’t mean squat. You will waste time and money 99% of the time and never see a $. I have 4 judgments against assorted dirt bags and never got a $$. This is from 5 years ago. All it did is cost me money doing all the paperwork. Supposedly with a judgement on your record you should not be able to qualify for any kind of loan. 1 of the people I had a judgment against built a new home 2 years ago. ????
2 of the ladies cried in court and promised the Judge to make payments. Didn’t get a dime. 1 of them laughed all the way to the car and gave me the #1 finger. The court system is too easy on these low lifes.

Something similar happened to me several years ago. I ended up having to pay my 500 deductible. The insurance co went after the other party but they wouldn’t pay. I took them to small claims court and win a judgement against them. They still wouldn’t pay, so I got a lien put on their property. About 5 years later I got a letter from their attorney asking me to drop the lien. I replied as soon as I am paid for my $500 I will have it released. A week later I got paid. They had tried to sell the property I had the lien put against, but couldn’t until I got paid. It probably cost them more for the attorney then if they would have paid my deductible.

Same thing happened to me a few years back in my last truck. I was stopped, drunk driver hit me doing about 35mph. Visible damage was less than yours but on the way home my drive shaft fell right out. I was in MN and I was rear ended by a drunk so I had 0 fault. Not sure of your exact situation… but I would consider speaking to your insurance agent. You probably shouldn’t be on the hook for your deductible in this case.