Small Claims Court - Would You Do It? or Is There Another Option I'm Missing?

I work in insurance and specifically pricing of insurance. Here's what you need to know:

Your insurance rates CAN go up after at not at fault accent. However, in the state of PA, insurance companies are not allowed to charge for not at fault accidents. This means that since you live in PA and have your auto insurance in PA, Erie cannot increase your rates because of your not at fault accident. You will need to provide proof that this was a not at fault accident (sounds like you have a police report). You can go to the Department of Insurance website for PA to see this for yourself (you can google "PA DOI").

Hiring an attorney is not worth it unless there is BI involved (bodily injury). It's a waste of money for $400 on a PD claim.

Allstate is notorious for not paying when they are required to. Your best bet is to let Erie handle and get your money for you. It could be the case that the person who hit you only carried minimum insurance limits and therefore if the cost of your repair/rental exceeds those limits, Allstate does not need to pay and your insurance would have to step in to cover the remaining. If Erie (or Allstate for that matter) gives you a hard time, it'd be worth your time to contact the PA Department of Insurance. If you write a formal letter of complaint, they will address with the insurance company. The PA DOI is very consumer friendly and deal with complaints quickly.

Good luck.

Two years ago after I bought my car, someone hit me in a parking lot. Left no note. My car was in the shop for 3 weeks. Insurance would only pay for 1 week as that was the time frame they had on the books that it would take to repair the damage.

Unfortunately, this was around the 4th of July and places were closed, it was a mess. I called our insurance company and told them the problem, they extended my rental. Why did your insurance not extend the rental?

Seven weeks is a LONG time for a repair. A REAL LONG TIME...your insurance AND the repair company should have told you upfront how long it was going to take and what they would pay for.

Did you NOT place a claim with YOUR insurance, if not, why? The accident was NOT your fault so your rates should NOT go up.

Personally? $400 isn't worth my time. yeah...it can be a car payment to some - but really - how much are the filing fees for court, how much time do you need to take off work for this, do you have the vacation time to take off work?? I would call my insurance company and get a claim going...hopefully, you haven't passed a statute of limitations on it. Also - your car has lost value...did the insurance company of the guy who hit you give you money to compensate your for that loss??

Go back to your own insurance company and get clarification. It makes no sense that YOUR rates will go up if you report it even when it wasn't your fault. I've been the victim in several accidents and never had my rates go up. Get clarification from a supervisor. You have the police report. I have no idea why you were dealing with the other driver's insurance company directly anyway - that never happens in my state. My insurance company does all the work for me. In fact, I was told NOT to talk to the other insurer because they would try to get me to settle for something less.

I hope you have not signed a thing with the other insurance company. If you did, you MAY be out of luck but check it out first.

But you are correct that the other insurance company should be paying for your rental, and you should have had your car repaired at an approved shop via your insurer.

Going forward, you never EVER deal with the other guy's insurer - their loyalty is to HIM. Your insurer's loyalty and obligation is to YOU.

I do think 7 weeks in the shop is a very long time and I'd really be curious about why that happened. Is there an agreement between the insurer and that body shop where everyone's getting some money except you??? Hmmm.

If you don't get satisfaction, take all the paperwork and talk to the state insurance commissioner. Something's really not right about this whole scenario but I can't tell where it broke down.

Insurance will only pay for the time it takes to repair your car. If your car was repaired and you were unable to arrange to pick it up for a couple days then they will not pay car rental for those couple days. If you picked up your car the day they finished the repairs then the other insurance should cover it.

You can certainly take the insurance company to court (not the other driver since the insurance company took financial responsibility for the accident and they are acting on his behalf) but another option might be to file a complaint with the department of insurance in your state. You file a complaint and give all the details. The DOI then opens a case and requests info from the insurance company. A lot of times that will resolve the issue.

The 2 insurance companies should have been negotiating this from the beginning. If you chose not to involve your insurance company, you may be out of luck.

Sometimes bad stuff happens, and it's NOT your fault but it'll still cost you anyway.
Being run into by a drunk driver may not be anyone's but the drunks fault, but the victim can't change being a paraplegic.
No, it's not fair - but then there's a lot in life that's not fair.
"Fair" is a concept that we all like to believe in but to a large extent it doesn't exist.
The long and the short of it is - small claims court will cost you more than the $400 you are trying to collect.
You're lucky you were not permanently injured or killed.
Being out $400 is not the worst thing in the world.
Let it go and move on.

Additional:
Actually I HAVE heard of peoples insurance rates going up (or being canceled) even if an accident wasn't their fault.

The problem is with your insurance company. It's up to them to pay you, and then get reimbursed by the other driver's company for their loss. If they don't do that, then you have a lousy policy or a lousy insurance company. Buyer beware and all that. And your insurance company should of course have been involved in the claims process all along. If they're telling you otherwise, or that your rates will go up, then again they're either a lousy company or you have a lousy policy.

What should have happened from the get-go is that you report the claim to your company and pick a place to bring your car. Your company would send an appraiser out to the shop (or to you, if it was drivable) and negotiate with the shop's appraiser on the cost and time of the repair. From that estimate, the insurance companies work with each other for the other driver's company to pay the shop and rental for that estimated amount of time. If the shop had the car longer than estimated, it's up to them to either bill you directly because you're the one who picked them, go back to the insurer to explain and validate why it took longer (more extensive damage, parts on back order, etc.) so that you get more coverage for the rental, or decide to eat the cost of the additional rental time if it was their fault that the repair took longer than estimated. In any case, the delay should have been communicated to you so that you had a chance to question the delay, protest the additional cost of longer rental time, figure out who was paying the additional cost, etc.

Bottom line is that a decent insurance company who values your business will eat these incidental costs and then either let it go or work with the shop or other insurer for some reimbursement so that they're not out of money either.

Check your policy carefully, take this up the chain of command at your insurance company and see what you can get out of them. You will not win in small claims court, and the other driver will not pay you.

I think you need to determine just how valuable your time and energy is. I'm not saying $400 isn't much, for sure it's a big chunk of change, but going after someone in court (with no guarantee of a payout) is going to drain your time, stamina and mood. If you can eat the $400 let it go, that's what I would do.

What is your time worth?

If I took my salary and divided it up to get an hourly rate, I would calculate the number of labor hour I would have to work to hit that $400. If you actually file a claim, you will have to take off of work to file the paperwork and then take off of work again when the case is heard. My guess is that the amount of vacation time you would have to take would exceed the $400.

Why was your car in the shop for 7 weeks and were you asking questions about this the entire time? There is no way that the other driver will pay the extra money. He has filed a claim with his insurance company and paid his deductible...that is what he is supposed to do.

I would make a few calls to the two insurance companies involved to see if anything else can be done. Other than that, I would probably swallow that big, nasty pill. Yeah, I would totally be pissed off about it. However, it sounds like a pretty big headache with no guarantee of any payback to take him to small claims.

Did you talk with a supervisor at the insurance office. If not that's the first step. Go to his supervisor and on up the lin

Every insurance company I've been with required their clients to report ALL accidents. They would then deal with the other company or pay the $400. I suppose that in your case you would be filing a claim which could affect your rates if this isn't your first accident. Some companies forgive the first accident while others don't. If you have a deductible, getting your insurance agent to help may not get you any money.

You could talk with your insurance agent about the process. Getting information/advice from your agent is a part of their service.
He probably has experience with small claims.

Filing small claims is not without risk. If you lose you will have to pay all court costs which are high. Who will you sue? I suggest that the judge may say that the insurance company has followed their policy and are therefore not liable. The same thinking could go with the driver. I suggest that the driver, because he has insurance that paid you, the driver wouldn't be liable.

I would talk with your insurance to get advice.

Something similar happened with my accident. The auto body shop paid the rental difference.

Oh I wanted to add I always go though my own insurance and use their preferred provider body shop. That way they have a contract with my insurance company that takes care of things like this. Oddly they only reduced the base rate by the days over, not what I was paying for car like mine. Still then the asshat's insurance covered that. Oh and the guy who hit me was an asshat!

Oh, also, never heard of an insurance company that doesn't tie you to binding arbitration via those fifty pages of legal spew.

Oh, last edit I promise, did you go to the body shop his insurance sent you to or picked one of your own? If you picked this shop, especially if there were other shops not as backed up, you don't have a leg to stand on. You can't demand an extra four weeks of rental costs because you liked this shop. That would make it your choice to have the extended time and they will always make you pay for your choices.

Why can't your insurance company demand that the other company pay? That's called subrogation. That's what you do when someone hits you who has jackleg insurance and demands that you have your car fixed at a crappy place where they pay the workers peanuts. You say no and take the car to a place that your own insurance approves of. You pay your deductible and your insurance company fronts the cost of the repair. What happens next is that someone who has THEIR insurance is involved in an accident with your insurance company, but this time it's YOUR insurance company who owes the money. Your insurance company says "Well, we will pay for the repair, but only after you have paid for P. M's bill. Close out that claim and then we'll talk about this claim." And that's when you get a check from your insurance company for your deductible. And supposedly, the cost of the car rental.

You probably didn't know that subrogation exists. (I found out when somebody with jackleg insurance hit my husband's car. Their insurance adjustor wouldn't even come to us to see the car. He told my husband that he had to drive the car to him. They said they'd pay $700 to fix a $2500 repair. Yeah, right, like we were going to put up with THAT...)

If you have a good insurance company yourself, and not jackleg insurance, they will do this for you. I am NOT sure about the cost of a rental car. If you have poor insurance, then you now know what it can cost you to not work with a good company. I've seen people here on this board ask about companies before signing up with them and people will tell you what they think. Like for instance, Progressive who does all the Flo with the big hair and red lips ads. They spend a ton on advertising, but according to what people have written here, they don't take care of you well if you have an accident. I'd rather pay a couple of hundred dollars a year more for coverage for companies who do right by you than pay for jackleg insurance.

Go back to your insurance company and talk to them about subrogation. I wonder if you have asked them the wrong question. They are thinking that you want them to pay for it. This is different. Maybe it's too late to do it - I don't know. However, at the very least, now you know what this is and you should know for next time.

(Lastly, I have to wonder why on earth it would take 7 weeks to fix your car. Something's wrong there...)

Seven weeks in the shop! That's crazy. Have your ins company sue the drivers company. Your rates will not go up if it's not your fault. All accidents over a certain amount must be reported to your insurance company.

If you never reported it to your company, you will have have to eat the $400.

My time = $$$

How much is $400 worth to you? If it were me, I'd suck it up and pay the $400, make no claims against my insurance company. Basically... Eat the $400.

It will cost you way more in money, time, and effort to go after someone in small claims court for $400. That a waste of city/county/government funds plus all the personnel involved for $400 that you " might" win. Then it is a judgment against the other driver and you'll more than likely never see the money.

So, you put in all the time, effort, and never see $400. Even if you lawyer up, you'll spend more than $400. Is $400 worth that much to you?

If so, go through your insurance company. I personally would not waste my time. Chalk it up to experience.

Bottom line, you feel wronged by insurance companies because of $400. Now remove your emotions from this scenario.... It could have been much worse.

ETA: Does YOUR policy cover a rental at %100?

It's gonna cost you WAY more than $400 to go to small claims court.
I don't think its SOP for the other company to cover your rental.
And if you didn't have insurance covering your rental, I think you eat it. Sorry. 😁

You could try it, but it's not always easy to collect, even when you win.

Your insurance company may not raise your rates. $400 is peanuts to them, and it wasn't your fault. Maybe you can ask them if they will raise the rates.

I would weigh the time and effort to take him to court (with fees) and if you are likely to get the $400. Does your insurance have any coverage for rentals? For about $400, I would probably not go to court. In the world of insurance, little is fair to the consumer. I was once offered $300 for a car that was otherwise running well - because it was old. I was not at fault. I was so not at fault I was asleep and my car was properly parked! I fought with them for a year and got another $500 but that didn't replace my car. They didn't use Kelly Blue Book, they used classified ads to determine the value, and they were legally able to do so.

It's not "right" but that's the way these things work. If they think your car was in the shop too long or whatever, then try going up the food chain to figure out what their issue is and if you can prove to them that no, it really did need to be rented that long. I think that unfortunately this is one of those pills that is tough to swallow. No, you're not at fault and you shouldn't have to pay, but your options are court (which will likely be more time and money than the $400 is worth) or report it to your ins. and raise your rates (have they no provision for first accident forgiveness?) and what will that cost you? This is also why I have full coverage on my vehicle so that when I am out a car and need a rental (or someone else does), I am covered. If they are quibbling that you used a rental company they don't contract with, find out if they would pay a portion comparable to their preferred rental company rates. That might be a few more $ for you.

ETA: I do agree to revisit your insurance's claim that your rates will go up and that they can't help. Now, I did have problems when I had liability only, but with full coverage, my insurance talked to her insurance and I didn't have to do much myself.

ETA2: Ah, Erie. I have heard of them dropping people for accidents, so I would ask if you report this, are you now on a short list?

Your rates can go up even if it wasn't your fault. You can try suing the other driver, but I think they raise a good point about your car being in the shop too long. 7 weeks sounds excessive. You are probably going to have to justify why it was in the shop so long. You will need something from the auto shop explaining the delay in getting your car back. What is the filing fee in your county? Deduct that from what you will win, if you win. You can sue and if you decide to sue make sure you ask for all filing fees and interest on the money. Check your county's local rules on the interest rate you can collect at, if you can collect interest in your county. However, there is a good chance you will not recoup interest or filing fee so be ready to eat those costs. You will also lose a day of work. Again you can try to sue for lost wages for having to take time off of work to go to court, but you probably won't get that either, so you will lose a vacation or sick day, and if you don't have them, your day will be unpaid. The shop maybe unable to work with you in providing a reason for the delay in getting your car back.

If you are truly interested in suing, get your ducks in a row first. My first call would be to the shop for a detailed explanation as to why it took so long to get my car back. Do some research into your county's local rules for small claims court. You should be able to find this information and all the forms needed on their website. Really find out how much money you will get back compared to your time and see if it is worth it.

I'd have hired an attorney to handle it for me. They go for damages and injury to you, both mental and physical trauma.

They get a huge chunk of it but you're always ahead by a bunch when it's all settled and done.

If you have Rental Reimbursement on your insurance policy, it would be covered and your rates should not go up. But this is an elective option and most people don't want to pay for it. Then when this happens, it's the first thing they wish they had. I would just pay the $400 and let it go. It could have been much worse and that's a small price to pay for the hassle of trying to get it paid by someone else. JMO. Good luck.

Pay it and move on.

But, just FYI, when I was rear-ended a few months ago my insurance paid my car rental up to a certain rate, but since I needed a minivan, it didn't cover the whole cost. My insurance company has a department that goes after additional costs not covered by my policy, and was able to recoup the entire costs from the at-fault driver's company.

My Erie Insurance policy pays $40/day for a rental car. It sounds like they thought the repair shop was "over" by 10 days. And your insurance agent is wrong - I've never known them to penalize for an accident that was someone else's fault.

That said, the insurance company will work with you to pay off that bill. You should be able to arrange interest-free monthly payments. Go for $10/month. Years ago, my husband was at fault in an accident to the tune of $3000. It took us almost 3 years to pay it off, but the insurance company was more than willing to work out a payment schedule.

That happened to me and starting on day 31 (the insurance only covered 30 days) the repair shop covered the additional 10 days of rental car.

I worked this out with the repair shop around day 26 or 27 when it became very apparent that my car would not be finished. And instead of being another three weeks like they were telling me they got it done in ten days.

I am not sure what you can do now after the fact. Were they not clear that the rental car was only covered for so many days?

I would call my own insurance company back. They should pay the $400 and then go after the other driver and/or his insurance. It's calls subrogation and they do it all the time. You are right - you should not be out of pocket one penny

Small claims court really isn't that big a deal. The fee is usually around $50 or less. You get a hearing scheduled, you show up, you explain your case, he explains his defense, the "judge" makes a ruling, you are done. If they rule in your favor, you have an enforceable court order and you can do things like garnishment to get your money. If you lose, well, ask an attorney in your state, but typically attorneys are not allowed, so you would not be responsible for attorney's fees, possibly for the other person's court costs if the judge thought you were wasting everyone's time.
I would do it, but I am not afraid of court :)