About a month ago, I was rearended in a Jack-in-the-Box drive-through. Mind you, it was busy, but the man who hit me didn't even get out of his car and acknowledge his mistake, making me doubt that it'd even happened--though the car had violently lunged forward seemingly inexplicably. Despite this, I got out of my vehicle and went around the back to check for any immediate damage (that was not quite visible right then considering the position of the damage) and even looked at the man in the truck behind me who just avoided any sort of eye contact. I decided to drive around, hoping that maybe he just didn't want to clog up the drive through, but instead of stopping, the man just drove off--though not before I got his license plate number. Now, the truck I'm in had only been in my possession for perhaps 4 days when this rear-ending occurred. It's a 2001 Pathfinder, but it was in excellent condition before I decided to buy it for my daughter and even still had temp plates when the accident occurred. Confused, I decided to call the police, who met me at the scene and promptly called the man back. It was then that I noticed my bumper was completely lodged into the spare tire beneath the car, something that both I and the dealer both testified was NOT that way when I bought the car just a few days prior. The man returned and essentially said he did not remember rear ending me or anything, though, at one point, he even offered to pay for the damages out of pocket though I said it would be best to go through the insurance.
Cue two weeks later. His insurance put me through all sorts of changes considering now he's telling them he didn't do it, forcing me to buy a police report (that said the rear ending was the man's fault) before they finally sent someone out to look at my Pathfinder. The man they sent hardly looked at the apparent damage to my bumper (which is only really seen beneath the vehicle) and now flat spare, but rather took note of some obviously old scuffs on the side of the bumper and took a couple of bogus measurements. A day later, the man's insurance calls me and says they've decided not to take fault for the rearending based on the scuffs and some video they got from Jack-in-the-Box (which was at a horrible angle for one and clearly shows me getting out of the car to inspect my vehicle moments after it happened). What should I do in this situation? My car is obviously damaged and I would rather not have to pay a deductible through my own insurance and have it go up based on someone else's mistake. Should I take this to small claims court?
Cue two weeks later. His insurance put me through all sorts of changes considering now he's telling them he didn't do it, forcing me to buy a police report (that said the rear ending was the man's fault) before they finally sent someone out to look at my Pathfinder. The man they sent hardly looked at the apparent damage to my bumper (which is only really seen beneath the vehicle) and now flat spare, but rather took note of some obviously old scuffs on the side of the bumper and took a couple of bogus measurements. A day later, the man's insurance calls me and says they've decided not to take fault for the rearending based on the scuffs and some video they got from Jack-in-the-Box (which was at a horrible angle for one and clearly shows me getting out of the car to inspect my vehicle moments after it happened). What should I do in this situation? My car is obviously damaged and I would rather not have to pay a deductible through my own insurance and have it go up based on someone else's mistake. Should I take this to small claims court?
