Originally Posted By: 92saturnsl2
Long story short, I go to renew my insurance the other day and there's a $120k claim on my report. I immediately get a letter of experience from my ins. company at the time, and they closed the claim, settling for $120k. Nobody notified me, the last thing I heard is "nothing to worry about." This was approx 1.5 years ago that I last communicated with that attorney, it seems to have been settled recently. Any requirement for my participation and/or notification?
Not looking for legal advice (I'll talk with my own attorney about it,) just looking opinions, thoughts on the matter, or similar experience from others. Also, how long does such a claim show up on reports ins. companies use for rating, if anyone knows. The renewal for my current ins. company hasn't gone up, I was just out looking for quotes when I discovered this.
This is one of the reasons we have insurance. What's odd is that the insurance companies deal with this and don't even notify us. Decades ago my wife caused an accident and our insurance settled a claim from the other party for about 50K and never told us about it. Like you, we were caught off guard when we learned about it. In some ways, I suppose we should be grateful that we do not have to get involved with the judicial drama.
Regarding the circumstances, the OP tried to do the right thing (Kudos), but followed bad advice that it was o.k. to leave the scene before someone else showed up to monitor the intersection. What happened afterword was probably a long, drawn out lawyer battle and a plea bargain type of outcome was worked out to satisfy all parties. Who knows if there is any proof that you were told it was o.k. to leave. The cops could not be there instantaneously, so it is not their fault. The missing stop sign would not be canceled away regardless of the intoxication/no license condition.
Let sleeping dogs lie. Consider it as the insurance company making the problem go away without you being judged guilty/not guilty of causing the accident. People don't realize how much "playing" goes on between lawyers.
