CA Department of Insurance Complaint #2 - Ric V vs CIG
On 10/24/2018 at 10:45 am Ric got into a low speed car accident. Three cars were damaged: Ric's car, a moving vehicle insured by CIG, and an unoccupied parked car insured by State Farm.
CIG's insured exited her car claiming Ric hit her when in fact the opposite had transpired.
While exchanging insurance information Ric became aware of the fact he had been silently dropped by AAA 12.5 months prior. (this is a separate legal issue to be investigated). As it was disclosed later, CIG's insured was not carrying any comprehensive or collision, which makes her initial desire to quickly and illogically pin blame on Ric more logical.
Ric and the facts indicate it was CIG insured's fault. Thankfully, State Farm recognized the at fault party as CIG's insured too.
Unfortunately, CIG decided to commit numerous counts of fraud to try to collect money from an uninsured motorist and to avoid payouts to an uninsured motorist.
CIG's insured seems to have given a false or errant statement to CIG. Her statement would have and should have been discarded by CIG as false had they been interested in a truthful damage assessment. BUT...
Because they had not done any reasonable investigation, CIG didn't realize just how telling the damage patterns were, they didn't know relevant scene details, and they didn't know Ric had obtained a video of the accident which does an exceptional job of detailing the leap frog move that caused the accident.
Instead of capitulating when reasonable facts became evident, CIG went the other way and now we are here. In total CIG has committed approximately 8 relevant acts of fraud...
- CIG's insured had tried to leap frog around Ric and she merged into his lane too early and collided with him
- She pushed his car into a parked car, pinned him there and her car slid down the side of his.
- The total vehicle damage is approximately $15,000. For round numbers it was approximately $6000 to Rics car, $6000 to CIG's car and $3000 to the parked car.
- There were no claims for bodily injury from any party
- What should have been a simple insurance resolution due to accident scene photos and the verifiable patterns of damage has turned into a train wreck.
CIG's insured exited her car claiming Ric hit her when in fact the opposite had transpired.
While exchanging insurance information Ric became aware of the fact he had been silently dropped by AAA 12.5 months prior. (this is a separate legal issue to be investigated). As it was disclosed later, CIG's insured was not carrying any comprehensive or collision, which makes her initial desire to quickly and illogically pin blame on Ric more logical.
Ric and the facts indicate it was CIG insured's fault. Thankfully, State Farm recognized the at fault party as CIG's insured too.
- The damage patterns and accident logistics tell a simple tale without any gray.
Unfortunately, CIG decided to commit numerous counts of fraud to try to collect money from an uninsured motorist and to avoid payouts to an uninsured motorist.
CIG's insured seems to have given a false or errant statement to CIG. Her statement would have and should have been discarded by CIG as false had they been interested in a truthful damage assessment. BUT...
- CIG never took a statement from Ric
- CIG never asked for any damage photos or any other information from Ric
- CIG never took a statement from State Farm's insured,
- CIG never ask for any damage photos or any other information from State Farm's insured
Because they had not done any reasonable investigation, CIG didn't realize just how telling the damage patterns were, they didn't know relevant scene details, and they didn't know Ric had obtained a video of the accident which does an exceptional job of detailing the leap frog move that caused the accident.
Instead of capitulating when reasonable facts became evident, CIG went the other way and now we are here. In total CIG has committed approximately 8 relevant acts of fraud...
- Initial Fault Declaration against Ric without any reasonable investigation.
- Issuance of Subrogation Letter for $3500
- Denial of coverage for damage $6106.54
- Avoidance of documents submitted for review - 5 weeks in total
- Second fault Declaration without properly disputing any of the facts presented for review AND without providing any photos, sketches or supporting facts for their version of events.
- Issuance of Subrogation Letter for $5793.82 when they had only paid out $3500 under an uninsured motorist policy
- Presentation of damage estimate for $5793 calling it and invoice and evidence of damage. No photos to support damage to rear portion of car were provided
- Letter from Martin Ighani, Esquire, the Attorney for CIG to CA Department of Insurance with a voluminous amount of false and fabricated facts