Lawyers, should an insurance company pay me for the time and gas expenses it's going to cost me to get my repaired car?

They don't want to pay people these fees. Insurance companies and brokers are crooked and evil as one could imagine. They may even lie to you, saying you're not entitled to it if they think you'll believe it. Ultimately you may have to go through with legal action and only then will they finally cave in and pay up the fees the legally owe, before the court date happens because they would be exposed further with their scheme. Insurance companies are con artists.

Look into having it transported to B-more. A flat bed transport would probably cost $200-300. Beats all the driving. Might be easier to convince the insurer to pay for it under towing cost.

Might depend on the language of whatever release, if any, that you signed. Had a similar though not serious crash and the other company asked me to sign a "OK, this is what we're going to pay for" statement. In my case it was fair, so I signed it after asking for one change in the terms. And consulting a lawyer in my family.

They want finality on their end and not an open ended cash register.

If you have not signed such a thing then, squeaky wheel gets the oil I guess but what is your recourse if they don't pay? You probably won't sure over it after all.

I'd ask for it to be flatbeded up to your home.

Precious Roy wrote:

Look into having it transported to B-more. A flat bed transport would probably cost $200-300. Beats all the driving. Might be easier to convince the insurer to pay for it under towing cost.

This is your best option. Read through your policy and find the limit for towing expenses. Your insurance won't compensate you for your time to go pick up the car unless your vehicle is insured under a commercial auto policy and you have a business income endorsement and can prove the loss of your auto resulted in a direct loss of income (unlikely in your case).

There should be a lot more money calculated into insurance payments. Doesn't solve your problem and will end up costing us all more in insurance rates. I bought a new car two years ago. Was hit from behind two months later by someone texting and driving. Their insurance paid for the repairs, my 2 month old car did not run like new, didn't look like new and has never driven the same. Both my insurance and theirs say there's nothing I can do.

I once had to fly to Pittsburgh from NYC to retrieve my car post repairs after an incident with a deer in western MD. I wasn’t reimbursed for time nor cost. I didn’t think to ask though.

You’re probably going to have to eat the cost of retrieval. A couple of extra ads on LRC, and you should be good to go.

I'm at SU Law and according to what I've learned you MAY be able to argue that but far more likely if you argue you miss work which.... Im not sure you can argue.

They are obligated to pay whatever their contract says it covers to their Insured. You won't know what that is unless you request a copy of the Policy from them-- which in many states you can do by statute. Their coverage obligation, no doubt, does not exceed what you could recover from the other driver as damages. Though this isn't my area of the law specifically, and I don't live in your state, I've never seen time spent in this manner listed or awarded as damages and I think it very unlikely that they would be. I am similarly skeptical that they will pay you anything, or that it is compensable that you live somewhere where having this accident is inconvenient for you to return to to get your car repaired. Generally speaking, you bear the risk of the inconvenience of the location (to you) when you travel, not the person who struck your car.

Precious Roy wrote:

Look into having it transported to B-more. A flat bed transport would probably cost $200-300. Beats all the driving. Might be easier to convince the insurer to pay for it under towing cost.

$200-300?

I think WAY more. The insurance cmopany already paid out $1150 in towing charges. The tow trucks are a racket. Apparently they charged the insurance company $1150 to tow the car from the accident site to a lot on the side of the road and then later from that lot to the car repair shop. And the insurance company didn't bat an eye about it. The guy told me they always pay through the roof.

allYOUcan3AT wrote:

This is your best option. Read through your policy and find the limit for towing expenses. Your insurance won't compensate you for your time to go pick up the car unless your vehicle is insured under a commercial auto policy and you have a business income endorsement and can prove the loss of your auto resulted in a direct loss of income (unlikely in your case).

What does my in surance have to do with any of this? This other dude hit me and inconvenienced me. Theoretically I could easily sue and then they are paying thousands just to even address the case.

If I was at fault, my insurance would be relevant. His insurance needs to make me whole.

I worked for 5 years settling insurance claims for Progressive.

Car insurance covers indemnification, meaning that their company owes the cost to return your vehicle to pre-accident condition. The rental car is part of the cost of the repair, which is why they're paying for it.

The distance you are from the repair site is immaterial to the indemnity clause. Accidents are inherently inconvenient and there are some inconvenient costs associated with them, like the costs you are going to incur having to get your car back home from the repair site.

If I were you, I would just accept that because you could waste a lot of time and energy trying to get some extra money. Threatening anything is useless because the language is extremely clear in all car insurance regarding what is owed and not owed.

Passerby is right

Have you talked to your insurance company about this? They should be working on your behalf to ensure that you are compensated for everything to which you might be entitled.

Hopefully no injuries?

Your insurance company should handle all of this with the at fault's insurer to your satisfaction and then have you sign off on it. You will need to stay on them though as they will assign someone who is handling hundreds of claims. Do not forget diminution in value for your car b/c of the accident. If it's a nice car and was not totaled, that can be a pretty big #.

I used to work as an auto adjuster for a large insurance company. When we were at fault we would pay for the car to be returned to the insured if it was outside of a reasonable driving radius, for instance when someone was on vacation and got in the accident.

Gas is not owed to you since you would use gas in your vehicle normally. If you missed work due to injury then you can be compensated, not because of poor planning. It must be work you can prove though, not some crap like 'post on LetsRun under false handle to generate clicks'.

The insurance company will typically have a deal with certain tow companies and get a better rate than you would, so $200-$300 could happen but 7 hours away would probably be more than that.

Unless you are claiming injury, good luck trying to sue. Lawyers know there is almost no money to be made on property damage only claims.

Ca$hclay wrote:

Hopefully no injuries?

Your insurance company should handle all of this with the at fault's insurer to your satisfaction and then have you sign off on it. You will need to stay on them though as they will assign someone who is handling hundreds of claims. Do not forget diminution in value for your car b/c of the accident. If it's a nice car and was not totaled, that can be a pretty big #.

+1

I would start with your own insurance company to see if they can take care of this through the at fault insurance (they should). Otherwise, what are you paying them for?

Passerby wrote:

I worked for 5 years settling insurance claims for Progressive.

....

If I were you, I would just accept that because you could waste a lot of time and energy trying to get some extra money. Threatening anything is useless because the language is extremely clear in all car insurance regarding what is owed and not owed.

Its not about what the insurance contract says, its whether they would defend the at fault driver if rojo sued for these damages that the drivers insurer denied responsibility for.

Why couldn't rojo file a small claims court action to recoup these costs? He needs no lawyer, its only a modest effort. Maybe this type of claim is not heard in SC Court? I don't know. If not then I agree, the cost of filing a real claim in real court is not worth it.

123st wrote:

Have you talked to your insurance company about this? They should be working on your behalf to ensure that you are compensated for everything to which you might be entitled.

I've been thoroughly unhimpressed with my insurer GEICO. When the accident happened, I tried to login to the GEICO app and it literally said something along the lines of, "Sorry we are extremely busy right now, please log in at another time." I only wish I had taken a screen shot.

I finally got logged in and they tried to get me to report the accident on the app. I wasted about 15 minutes doing so and then when I hit submit, it didn't go through due to some error. So I then called and while on hold they kept trying to urge me to do everything on the app. I was thinking to myself, "What do you think I've been trying to do for the last half hour? Your damn app doesn't work."

Then before the other party accepted blame, a Geico adjuster looked at my car and said it was $9,000 worth of damage and would take a week. The oher insurer has been very impressive. Virignia Farm Bureau. They are paying out more than $18,000 and it's taken more than a month.

When I was talkign to them on the phone, I was like, "This is amazing. It's so easy to talk to a human." When I told them I had GEICO, they laughed and said that GEICO even tries to make them do everything on an APP.

rojo wrote:

I've been thoroughly unhimpressed with my insurer GEICO. ........ When I told them I had GEICO, they laughed and said that GEICO even tries to make them do everything on an APP.

There's a reason Warren Buffet has such a great track record! He does the same things at every company he has a large stake in - squeeze out every penny of profit. At GEICO he's making the customers do some of the work so he can hire fewer employees. Just imagine what he's doing at the food companies Berkshire Hathaway owns!