Filing suit against insurace company or individual?

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paulo

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Hello. I was involved in an motor vehicle collision, where the driver who rear ended me was at fault. The impact actually forced my vehicle into the vehicle in front of me, and even though that secondary impact was very minor, the lady in that vehicle chose to be transported to the hospital by ambulance.

As i understand it, the guy who hit me did not have insurance, nor was it his car he was driving. The car was insured through the owner though. So I have ben dealing with the owners auto insurance for the settlement process. They have paid for repairs to my vehicle, over 8 thousand dollars for the repairs. We are now trying to reach settlement for the medical expenses, as well as pain and suffering settlement. The insurance adjuster has offered me 1100 dollars for the medical expenses and pain and suffering. My medical bills alone were approximately 950 dollars for an ER visit, follow up appointment, and prescriptions (soft tissue neck injury, strains etc.). My insurance company wants reimbursement of that 950 dollars, leaving me with 150 for the pain and suffering, time lost, etc.

I made a counter offer to the insurance adjuster of 4900 dollars. She refused and remained offering me only 1100 dollars.

I know for a fact that the insurance company had to pay out way more than 4900 dollars to the lady who was involved in the secondary accident, and her injuries were far less severe, given the mechanism of injury.

Now, I contacted the insurance company and talked to their represenatives about the information I needed to file suit, they assured me that I did indeed need to file suit against Farmers Insurance group, and not the individual who hit me, as Farmers was taking care of the settlemet process. So I filed suit with the small claims court of Santa Cruz county against Farmers Insurance.

I just recieved a phone call from the Farmers Insurance adjuster telliing me that I needed to file suit against the individual who hit me and not Farmers, and that if I didn't she would merely go to the court date and file for dismissal.

My questions are:

Do I need to re-file against the person who hit me, or against the owner of the vehicle, or is my filing against Farmers Insurance what i needed to have done. And if that was appropriate, why is the adjuster telling me I am wrong to have done so?

What do I need to do to supoena the information regarding the settlement for the second party involved in the accident? I have been finding conflicting information on this both online and on the court wesite.

Am I way off base on not settling for the 150 dollars, and asking for more?

Is there anything in particular I should bring in to court that would help me explain my case to the judge?

Thanks for any help you have for me.

-Paul
 
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