No Insurance or Insurance Scam

[BananaTom]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

If I'm in an accident where no one is injured, I'd prefer to simply exchange insurance info and be on my way, with a plan to report the event to my insurance company later that day. If my insurance company wants me to file a police report, I can do that without calling police to the scene. A few quick photos of the vehicles will be more important to my insurance company than a police report in the event of claims for exaggerated damage.

Have you actually tried that yet??

I had a minor crash, in a parking lot, other driver fault, police would not respond, private property. I drove to the station and got one. My insurance paid, and I was out my $1000 deductible. I called them, and they said "No Police Report, No Subrogation" I said I have a police report, sent it to them, they subrogated, I got my $1000 back.

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by BananaTom

Have you actually tried that yet??

I had a minor crash, in a parking lot, other driver fault, police would not respond, private property. I drove to the station and got one. My insurance paid, and I was out my $1000 deductible. I called them, and they said "No Police Report, No Subrogation" I said I have a police report, sent it to them, they subrogated, I got my $1000 back.

It's been a long time since I've been in an accident that involved insurance - the late 1980s. Slid off an icy street and took out a mailbox back in 2010, but settled that one in cash.

Other family members have had a few along the way - never in a hurry to call police unless the other driver wanted to. I don't think it has every been required by the insurance we carried or our current policy. They want a quick report, and they want you to exchange info. That's it.

As it happens, my wife is involved in a lot of legal cases involving auto crashes as an expert witness. There are a lot of bogus cases out there, but police reports are of very little use, because they are so low quality and are unreliable. Usually neither side bothers to depose the responding officers or call them as witnesses, because they don't recall anything other than what they wrote, and they aren't even very solid for verifying the facts in the police report.

Pictures and the emt reports are much more valuable than police reports. Pictures document the actual damage to the cars, end emt reports document the injuries immediately noticed by the occupants. But the targets of bogus lawsuits are much more likely to be the car companies and other parties with deep pockets.

But sure, call the police if you are concerned with the other party exaggerating claims or representing facts inaccurately to place you at fault. It seems like all our accidents have been the rear end variety where shifting fault is very hard.

But an accident plus a ticket is gonna hurt the insurance bill over the next 3 years a lot more than just the accident, especially for teens.