Involved in a Hit and Run with the Car and Motocycle got knocked over

[Airenn]

Two things:

My motorcycle was backed into in a parking lot today. The person was nice and left their number and I got their insurance information.

She was willing to possibly just get it fixed without going to insurance if it was cheap enough. (To avoid insurance going up and what not.)

I tried calling a couple bike centers for estimates but either no good information or no one answered, so my questions to anyone here are:

Should I even bother with this route? I was doing it to be nice since it was an accident and the girl was nice.

If anyone owns a motorcycle, could you tell me how bad it is? The throttle sticks now. It doesn't release back to "resting position." I have to manually move it back, and if I pull the clutch in/ and let go of the throttle it still revs the engine until I move it back. How bad is this problem? Easy fix? Expensive? I can tell the handlebar is a little bit bent in.

Second thing:

I was in the car on March 1st for a rainy weekend. It's my boyfriends car and we are both on the insurance, but only liability.

Dude hit me. And obviously kept going. Cop saw, chased him down and arrested him. (From the info I got from the police he was on a suspended license and a DUI charge of some sort.)

The insurance was Triple A. The car was insured under a different person's name.

Triple A has been dragging this out with the excuse "they have not been able to contact either person, their insured or the driver."

I escalated up to three supervisors and apparently they finally sent someone out to the house to see if they can get in contact in person. I am waiting for a reply from Triple A in the next couple of days.

They say they won't insure our car if the driver had not been given permission to drive the car. At the point it's a "stolen car." Pretty sure the daughter of the insured was letting the driver drive the car, though.

My questions: Is that right?

Can I sue Triple A?

Small claims court? And then, on who? The driver or the owner?

Or am I boned for repair cost? Mostly it's cosmetic damage to the back end, with the bumper hanging off one side, but the alignment(?) is off and the car drives wonky, is the best way to put it.


Thanks for any help/advice.

tl;dr I am the Cream Soda of automobile bullshit.

[Cream Soda]

Unless you really want to trust someone and hope they don't screw you, I'd get an official report filed for the motorcycle, but then again, at this point its your word vs theirs. THey can just say they never lft that note and that you're blaming them, then try not to pay you at all. Risky situation

As far as the car goes (well hell the motorcycle too); go see an attorney. Consultations are free; even if you don't plan on hiring on, you'll know if you have ground to take action or not/what some of your options are

[Salodin]

Yeah, motorcycle thing needs some kind of official report immediately. You shouldn't have just taken their word, that's wrong and puts you in a weak position. Get something official where the blame is on them asap. Its not the asshole thing to do, you're just covering your own ass.

Car thing idk. I'd tell triple A they need to respond asap or you're going to lawyer up. The threat of having to deal with an attorney will often get companies to pony up and do what they've been paid to do all this time. However, if they legally don't have to pay you then your next recourse is to sue the drunk driver iirc.

[Airenn]

Going to go ahead and report to insurance about the bike. It really is a no-brainer. I can't be trustworthy in this day and age - Specially not with my beautiful baby at risk.

Edit: About the bike, she left her name/number and then CAME to my house to give me the information. And her license number and insurance information. I have texts/call history about it, so I have that for me on "their word vs. mine" thing. Hopefully, anyway.

Still unsure about the car shit, though. It's been so frustrating. I don't know how to "threaten" Triple A with a lawsuit without it sounding laughable...

[FNH]

Probably more trouble since you have no police report on the bike. Sounds like the lever got bent causing the cable to need adjustment now, not expensive could do it yourself if you are handy.

[Salodin]

Still unsure about the car shit, though. It's been so frustrating. I don't know how to "threaten" Triple A with a lawsuit without it sounding laughable...

You don't threaten per say lol, just tell them "look, the car is insured by you, and the car is at fault. I'm done waiting for you guys. Call me back by tomorrow telling me what's up or next time you hear from me it'll be from a lawyer. By the way, what's your name again?"

Of course, this is only fair if you've actually waited a reasonable amount of time. I'm confident that insurance follows the car, not driver, so make sure you double check that and let them know.

Look at me, I'm getting mad for you lol. Keep us informed!

[Airenn]

I will. The bike is already covered. Again, the girl was super nice and cooperated with me on it. She made a claim by phone at the same time I did, and they've already called me back to say they are ready to fix it. I called the adjuster and left a message.


As for the car, new information on that, too. (Also, it's been a month and couple days now.) Next time I call them if I don't have more info from them saying they are fixing the car, I'll say what Salo said and actually contact a lawyer.

Today, though, they told me that the owner/insured of the car is dead. By power of attorney(?) it went to his oldest daughter, who doesn't live around here. They kept the policy active - It was the younger sister who was in the accident and her BF was driving.

As far as I am concerned that means they are directly responsible. Older sister has car, younger sister is driving it with her permission and younger sister lets BF drive it, basically giving him permission. Fuck Triple A at this point regardless though. They said the hold up now is getting in touch with the younger sister or driver for a statement.

[Abandon]

FUCK EM ALL, GET DAT MONEY

[Abandon]

as a side note: glad you're okay, that a lot of vehicle mishaps without breaking something or worse. Aint that right, CS?

[Kalmado]

I'm an insurance agent in Michigan so I can't say what the exact laws are for you, but regarding any type of incident it is always best to get an official report if possible. Regarding the hit car, in Michigan at least liability insurance follows the person, not the car(Michigan auto insurance is very jacked up though). You still should get something regarding your damages because of the circumstances. A-trips is probably hoping you go away so I'd keep on them.

[Cream Soda]

I consider myself lucky; 4/6 accidents had a laptop and ipod on me. No damage to any of my electronics. When falling/trying to land, idc if I take the most damage, I'll try to specifically land in the best case scenario for my laptop

[notorious bum]

Sig is hella appropriate with that post.

[Airenn]

I'm an insurance agent in Michigan so I can't say what the exact laws are for you, but regarding any type of incident it is always best to get an official report if possible. Regarding the hit car, in Michigan at least liability insurance follows the person, not the car(Michigan auto insurance is very jacked up though). You still should get something regarding your damages because of the circumstances. A-trips is probably hoping you go away so I'd keep on them.

Heh, I call Triple A so much that they'll get sick of me soon.

[Hatedregret]

Anyone else read the title and then check to see if CS was the poster?

[Quixon]

Call Triple A for an update on the claim. Tell them during that conversation that this has been dragging on for over month, and that if you do not have a firm answer by the end of the week the next contact will be through your attorney.

Go talk to an attorney after that phone call and see what they say. If their fee is worth it to speed up the process, hire an attorney. If it isn't, just keep calling and bugging them. You will get paid out eventually.

If the damaged car is driveable, and you don't have medical bills that need to be addressed..... I'd avoid the costly fees of a lawyer and just keep bugging them yourself.

[Senji]

Bike: easy fix, but you already have that squared away.

Car: Triple A is giving you a line of shit. Your car's insurance should be dealing with Triple A anyway, its part of what you pay them for.

If you had collision your insurance would front/fix your car and they would bill/sue Triple A and then send you a letter showing you how great they did. Don't know about liability only.

[Brill Weave]

I'm an insurance agent in Michigan so I can't say what the exact laws are for you, but regarding any type of incident it is always best to get an official report if possible. Regarding the hit car, in Michigan at least liability insurance follows the person, not the car(Michigan auto insurance is very jacked up though). You still should get something regarding your damages because of the circumstances. A-trips is probably hoping you go away so I'd keep on them.

Kalmado is correct. AAA insurance is like a AAA membership card. It covers the person, not the vehicle. It's not interchangeable and makes no difference whatsoever if the person had permission or not. They are not covered under the policy. I have a company car. I am on the policy. My wife isn't. If I gave her permission to drive the car while I was in it and she was in an accident it would go through her insurance, not mine. The same applies to this situation. It would go through the boyfriend's insurance. If he doesn't have any you would need to take him to small claims court for damages.

Simply put if his name is not on the AAA policy you have no grounds to go after AAA.

[Airenn]

Update: Triple A is covering our car.

Woot, thanks for all the advice, a lot of it helped. I think being aggressive and on them a lot pushed them to go ahead and do it.

[Brill Weave]

You lucked out lol.

[Airenn]

YUUUUP, and I get a damned rental car. Which is good considering the bike...