Q: daughter hit bicyclist - no damages/injuries per EMS. Cyclist now filed claim to our insurance who wants stmt - HELP!
On 7/3 daughter's auto fender bumped bicyclist's rear tire. FHP said no damages to bike (not even a blown rear tire!) or to auto (not even a scratch on fender!) and cited daughter for "moving violation" since bicyclist also didn't stop before riding his bike through a side street - he in fact told the FHP officer that he tried to "speed up enough to make it". Daughter called 911 immediately and requested EMS for bicyclist. They applied bandaids to small scrapes on bicyclist and released with no major injuries. Bicyclist gave hotel as address, has no phone or perm addr and no job. Per FHP advise, daughter didn't report to ins. co. Now they've left a voice mail that daughter needs to call to give a statement since a claim was filed against our insurance by the bicyclist. We are nervous about giving a statement to the ins. co. because we firmly believe the bicyclist is attempting to take advantage of this situation. We can't afford a lawyer but don't know what to do. Thank you
A: If the claim has been made with the insurance company, you and your daughter definitely should give the insurance company her version of the incident.
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A:
The insurance company is used to taking care of themselves. It is you company and they just want to hear what your daughter has to say--they aren't going to necessarily pay money and depending on how it happened may deny liability.
If your daughter was sued the insurance would hire an attorney for you--that's what you pay for. So relax. It's in the company's interest to either deny the claim or resolve it.
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