Can I do anything about this?

[edm1]

Two years ago I rear-ended a car at a traffic light where I came to a rolling stop. There was no damage to the car I hit—there was a small bike rack protruding from the back of the car and it was scratched. My car had two parallel line scratches on the bumper from the bike rack. The driver I hit was a white lady and she started to scream at me that her bike rack was new and I should wire transfer $300 to her immediately or she would call the cops on me. There was a witness who interjected at that the point that the cops wouldn’t come for such a minor accident. I told her I wanted to discuss it over with a family member before e-transferring and called her later to follow up. She said she decided to get it appraised with insurance and I said that’s fine. No money was claimed by insurance that I know of. Fast forward to two years later (1 month before the deadline) she serves me a notice by mail through an external law agency, claiming that she suffered severe psychological disorders, head injury, concussion symptoms, back pain, neck pain, insomnia, chronic and severe pain, etc. she claims that she lost income because of this, lost opportunities for promotion, lost competitive advantage in the workplace (past, present and future) and needed to hire external help for household chores. This just isn’t possible with such minor damage. She’s exaggerating and lying big time. My insurance is dealing with it… but Is there anything I can/should do?

 

[davelew86]

@edm1 No. Let your insurer handle it. That’s their job you’ve been paying them to do.

 

[edm1]

@davelew86 Will she probably make some money out of this?

 

[davelew86]

@edm1 There's no way to know.

 

[nw82]

@edm1 No chance

 

[resjudicata]

@edm1 There's nothing for you to do as your insurance is handling it.

 

[nw82]

@edm1 You have nothing to stress about over this, and any damages would be paid by your insurance company. The fact she didn’t report it until now raises some serious red flags. What state are you in?

 

[edm1]

@nw82 Thanks for the reply—I’m just seeing this now. I’m in Ontario, Canada.

 

[realsavior]

@edm1 Did you take any photos (that you still have) at the time from the scene of the accident? If you can prove that the damages at the time were super minor with no damage to her vehicle outside of the bike rack, your insurance company could deny her for causation. Did you ever get your vehicle fixed and/or do you still own the car involved?

I'm sorry this is happening. Trust me, as insurance adjusters and/or industry people, we hate this kind of thing, too. It's so gross when people try to make $$ off of an insurance claim.

 

[edm1]

@realsavior I don’t have pictures on the day of unfortunately but I have pictures of my car. I didn’t get it repaired and you can see the scratch marks to the right of the license plate: https://ibb.co/gv46spf

Your comment is really helpful because there was a witness who might have photos. I asked the insurance to inquire about them. I feel so frustrated—my parents have the insurance policy so they got served as well, and it caused them so much stress for no reason.

 

[realsavior]

@edm1 Is this witness someone you know? Or independent? Their statement to insurance company will matter. If they know you, however, their statement isn't generally considered, but their photos would be, for sure.

 

[edm1]

@realsavior My insurance company retained a lawyer on my behalf. Do you have any perspective to offer on this @trekgrrl ? I don’t know why they did that or what will happen. This is my first car accident, but you seem like you know insurance.

 

[realsavior]

@edm1 This is normal if you were served papers. Since the person you hit hired a lawyer and filed suit (to extend out the statute of limitations), they must have sued you the driver and as part of your policy, they will defend you in case you were sued (which, whether you realize it or not, were). Just do everything you are asked to do, tell the truth and you'll be fine. Sounds like your insurance company is taking care of it!

 

[edm1]

@realsavior I don’t know him, no. He gave me his card after the incident, and the insurance has his information as of a month ago.

My insurance also wrote to me this morning saying that they’ve requested medical info & a waiver from the other party.