Should I get a lawyer?

Off Topic
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I’m posting here because there are a lot of different backgrounds represented here, and maybe someone has been in a situation like this and has some ideas.

tl;dr: I’m stuck with a $600 charge for insurance I wouldn’t have bought if I hadn’t been misled (accidentally or otherwise) about who, specifically, would cover me.

Last month my car was totaled while parked by the side of the road (no injuries, and I wasn’t inside). Their insurer, State Farm, covered a rental car for me while I was out of a car, but Hertz needed to know who would insure me while I was in the rental. That depended on whether my insurer, Progressive, would cover me in the rental – if so, I would just use my coverage through Progressive. Otherwise, State Farm would purchase Hertz’s coverage on my behalf.

When I went to pick up the rental from Hertz, I called Progressive to get them to send my declaration sheet to Hertz. The guy at Hertz (whose name I know) concluded State Farm would purchase Hert’z coverage, and then spoke with State Farm, who said they couldn’t approve it right away, it would require 24 hours, but fill it in anyway.

Later, State Farm contacted Hertz and told them they wouldn’t approve it, since I am covered through Progressive. This leaves me having purchased a product from Hertz that State Farm wasn’t paying for, which I wouldn’t have purchased had the situation not been misrepresented to me.

I’ve spoken with State Farm and Hertz twice each over this, and it’s turning into a runaround.

So:
Is $600 enough money to speak to a lawyer over? Do I have any options that I’m not aware of? I can eat the fee if I have to, and this will soon start taking time away from money-making activities, but I want to make sure I’ve explored my options.

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In short: Nope. Don’t even bother picking up the phone again. Take your licks and go find a new insurance agent.

JR

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If you have a friendly lawyer that can write up something on “Lawyer Letterhead” for you, you might, maybe, get something back from Hertz.

I wouldn’t spend any money on it.

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You could try small claims court against the insurance company and the individual that hit your car - then two people will be complaining. They may decide it is better than paying a lawyer to represent them. You can also file a complaint with Texas Insurance Commission, that may help but the companies would have to at least respond.

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Licenced insurance agent here.

You’ll need to speak with an adjuster but here’s just some general points for you:

Claims always should be filed with the carrier that you had DURING the accident.

Check your declarations page with what coverage you had.

Your “collision deductible” is what you pay out before you can reach your insurance. This is possibly the charge you’re seeing.

“Rental reimbursement” is coverage to pay for rental cars while a claim occurs. You might not have enough coverage for this. It’s an optional add-on which may also be the charge.

“Underinsured motorist property damage” is used for hit and run scenarios or when the person that hit you doesn’t have enough insurance to cover your car.

I don’t know your coverages or what the full scenario is but you do have a couple options.

If you think your agent sold you a bad policy and didn’t fully explain it. You could go after the agent for E&O.
If you want to go after the other insurance company, ask for your carrier’s subrogation procedure.
If you want to go after the other driver, you’ll still have to hire a lawyer.

If I were in your shoes, I’d probably just eat the fee. It’ll cost a lot more to higher a lawyer.

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You don’t need a lawyer in small claims court.

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Assuming that you paid for the rental with a credit or debit card, you may dispute the charge with the card issuer. That costs you nothing.

@Stan Simmons and @Photomancer are right.

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Hi Ed,

It sucks that your caught in this. My understanding is that you agreed to the up sale of insurance for a rental car. Now, are you able to prove you were miss lead? I’m not sure. That being said, Small Claims Court is setup for these exact issues. The threat of taking this to small claims court may be enough to get your money back. Because, both groups that you could go after would likely lose more money defending than they could profit on this. Also, failure to show often ends with a ruling in favor of the party that appears.

Here is a PDF explaining more on how to go about suing in small claims court for Dallas.
https://www.dallascounty.org/Assets/uploads/docs/jpcourts/3-1/2014SmallClaimsHowtoStart.pdf

Also, here is the link to the Dallas Small Claim Site (source of the PDF)
https://www.dallascounty.org/government/jpcourts/3-1/start.php

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You may want to look at this. If the insurer gets wind you’re going to file a complaint they might be more cooperative.

If your policy doesn’t cover rentals or you’re otherwise at fault a complaint against the insurer won’t help. This will only help things if the insurer is at fault.

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One useful bit: the insurance company representing the person who hit your car isn’t actually responsible to you for anything; the damage caused by the accident is the responsibility of the person who hit you. Their insurance company is responsible (to the extent of their contract, at least) to THEM for handling the damage they caused to you.

This may sound like a really hairsplit difference, but it does lead to one possibility that you might try. Go to small claims court against the person who hit you. Or more specifically, call State Farm and tell them the problem you have. Don’t be a dick, but when you they give you the runaround, tell them “Ok, crap. I guess my only recourse is to go to small claims court against your insured.” Then contact the person who hit you and tell them “Hey, it sucks, but your insurance company isn’t taking care of this, so I have to come to you. I hate to have to go to small claims court with you.”

If need be, go to small claims court against the person. But I’ve found in similar circumstances, getting a truly pissed off call from their insured often gives insurers the kick to cut through the red tape to get things done.

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I worked for a couple years as an auto insurance adjuster, but it’s been a while now so some of what I remember might be rusty. But from what you described, State Farm stated they would cover the insurance costs if your current insurance didn’t cover it.

Since that’s between you and the contract you have with your insurer, I think unfortunately the onus was on you to know if your personal insurance with another company already provided that coverage. State Farm would then reserve the right to deny paying for that coverage upon review if they discovered that the insurance was not necessary (and in this case, it wasn’t).

For future reference, what your insurance covers can be drastically different from company to company (or even in the same company!) depending on the contract you have. Since the only caveat to State Farm covering the insurance was dependent on your contract with Progressive, the only contact you should have made was with Progressive. Ask specifically, “Does my current policy cover me in a rental vehicle while my vehicle is being repaired due to an accident?” Many policies exclude any rental, others allow replacement rentals but not pleasure rentals, and while I’ve never seen it before I suppose a policy could cover you for pleasure rentals only (that’d be weird).

With all that being said, if the State Farm adjuster who said to go ahead and get it even though approval wouldn’t come for 24 hours documented the claim file (diary/log) that he said for you to do it, then you might be able to just call them up and get it approved. Might require talking to a supervisor, though.

tl;dr: You might be out of luck and $600. Try making a case and asking to talk to the State Farm adjuster’s supervisor based on the “fill it in anyway” instructions.

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Having reread everything, I would say state farm is on the hook since their customer was liable. Call SF, demand a supervisor, and then tell them to pay up. Fight if you’ve got the time. Otherwise, eat it. My earlier point was that there is no point hiring a lawyer for a 600 charge. That amount won’t even cover the atty’s bill for writing the demand letter.