My car Insurance went to arbitration after initially saying the other party was 100% liable. When I was notified it would be going into arbitration, I found also out they never contacted my 3rd party witness (I do not know him personally). I pointed this out to the adjuster and they finally contacted the witness for a statement just before arbitration. Subsequently, I received a notification that the arbitrators did not decide in my favor. I’m thinking that it’s a possibility my Car Insurance company providing my witness this late in the game may have been considered suspect. I have proof that I gave my insurance company my witness info via the texts I saved when I filed the claim the day of the accident. It seems to me it may not have gone to arbitration and remained in my favor if they had provided my witness statement at the outset of my claim instead treating it like an afterthought. Were they negligent?
Was my auto insurance negligent in handing my claim?
byu/GooseyBird inInsurance
Posted by GooseyBird
7 Comments
Highly unlikely.
I have lost.mamy Arb rulings that seem open and shut in my drivers favor. Sometimes a guy will get stuck on the PR, or just totally make a bad ruling.
I once lost a case where my driver got hit in the quarter panel while driving in a parking lot by a car.backing out of its space. The Arb guy ruled that my insured was supposed to be able to see the other person backing out. Kind.of hard when their Expedition was already past the Accent when the driver started backing out
I’ve lost arb with clear video. I’m convinced it’s random chance at this point.
Arbitration is a crapshoot at best. A lot of arbitrators don’t really do their job properly. And we have no way to dispute it. I’ve tried many many times. The issue is if you had a witness, then both your insurance and the other parts are spoken to them. That’s a problem. I would complain to supervisor about itand the least the deductible back for that reason.
Do you know what statement the witness provided?
I’ve had some witnesses sound like complete idiots, some confirm the claimant’s facts of loss. Some never saw how the accident happened, they heard it and saw the aftermath. Some admit to knowing one of the driver’s and their statement is useless.
Unlikely mainly because your insurer wants the third party to be liable so they don’t have to pay for the damage.
No, they were not negligent. Did they do a less than thorough investigation? Possibly.
The best witness is a dash camera, or cell phone video of them stating what happened while still at the scene.
It’s also important to understand who can be a witness…people in the vehicle are biased. Relationship to the witness matters as well… family members or close friends are biased as well.
I’ve had difficulty getting witnesses to respond to my contact attempts. It’s also difficult to confirm that a witness actually witnessed the event.
There is also a problem with witness reliability. Google eye witness statements that contradict other witness. Neil Degrass Tyson has a video clip of his personal experience on a jury that is eye opening.
You just can’t predict how arbitration will turn out. I lost some that I was SURE I’d win. There are no guarantees. Maybe the liability wasn’t cut and dry to begin with.