What should be a fair settlement for my car accident?

I was rear ended last November and made a claim against my insurance company, not the at-fault party's insurance. This is my first and I hope the last accident I am involved in and I have no experience dealing with accident settlements. Due to the accident, I had the following bills, which my insurance company paid except for the deductible, which I paid:

Medical: $1,800
Vehicle repair: $4,861 - $500 (deductible) = $4,361
Car rental: $750 ($25 per day)
Lost wages: $243

I made a claim against the at-fault party's insurance company, which has offered me a settlement for $4,000. Does the amount seem reasonable? Should I accept the settlement, I must reimburse my insurance company for the medical bills that they paid. Please advice. Thanks.

MSAD

In essence - you have 1800 in meds and 243 in lost wages. for a total of 2043.00

They have offered 4000 - 1800 you pay back: 2200.

So you walk with 2200 in your pocket from a relatively small motor vehicle accident. Odds are, your medical bills are just a check and release -- sprain/strain injury.

Many adjusters would have only offered 1500 above the bills for such an injury.

EDIT: If your insurance company paid for the repairs to your vehicle and for your rental car...they now have a right of subrogation. That means, they have the right to be paid back. They will pursue recovery. Once they get paid - they forward your deductible back to you.

The other company will not make an offer to pay you for your companies subrogation claim. That is a completely separate matter that will be handled between the insurance companies.

But if you want to be sure....ask the adjuster if the 4K offer is just for the injury claim or does it include the property damage too. The adjuster will probably tell you the same thing I have....that their 4K offer is for the injury claim and that they will deal directly with your company for the property damage.

That's why you don't consider the vehicle repairs or car rental in the offer.

Your settling the bodily injury claim will in no way impact your companies property damage subrogation. You don't have the authority to settle on their behalf and you transferred your right to recover payment for your property damage to your insurance company when you settled with your company.

lucy

msad is right on the answer.

your car and car rental will be reimbursed to your insurance company, and they they will reimburse your $500 deductible when received.

your medical which they paid is most likely ER bill, maybe ambulance plus some xrays and RX; possibly some chiro for a few times at most.
by costs you submitted, sounds like whiplash or sprain/strain.

if those are the facts then for you to get almost 2k back in your pocket is great. a lot of companies may only consider $500 to 1K max for soft tissue injuries. due to the fact your car repairs were almost 5K, made your settlement more.

you could ask for more; most companies when they offer a settlement they have more to offer; the 1st is usually the lowest and they have a range of max they can offer.

they may have a max of 5k or 4500; you could counter and ask for say 5k; if they say cant do this since over their authority that would confirm they can offer more. they may come back with say 4250 or 4500 and say that is the max. dont say you will get a lawyer, since that is absolutely worthless. i have seen many cases that after someone hired a lawyer and we settled, that after the lawyer took his 1/3 fee, the client got less than our original offer;

good luck

Rod Knocker

No it is not enough. They should pay for your medical plus pain and suffering, loss of use of vehicle, personal property damage and lost wages.
If they do not pay your insurance company for fixing your car, your insurance will come after you

mbrcatz

Once you accept payment from YOUR insurance, then THEY now have the right to recover against the other guy's.

If you take that $4K, YOUR insurer is going to demand you pay it to them - and they'll be entitled to it.

Your insurer is going to get every penny they paid on your behalf, PLUS your deductible, from the other insurer, up to their policy limits. Accepting $4k, will be creating a massive problem for you.

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