Another question for the insurance experts...

My daughter's car got hit in a grocery store parking lot in Maine on Sunday. Not her fault. She was stopped and a woman backed into her. She's going to need a rear quarter panel and bumper, plus paint. The woman offered up her insurance cards without argument, but they did not get a police report.

Do we report it immediately to my daughter's insurance company or do we contact the woman's insurance company first?

Do we need to ask the grocery store if they have security camera footage of the incident or is this type of fender bender so common that it's not necessary?

Used to be the police wouldn't come onto private property to work a wreck. My wife and a guy backed into each other a couple of weeks ago in a Sam's parking lot and the guy demanded that they call the law. Wife got written for contributing, but no ticket. It seems she hit him further up the car that he hit her.

Call their insurance ASAP and hope the woman is as honest as she seems. Did your daughter take any pictures while the cars were still in place?

BTW it is a good idea to take pics of everybody that is in the other car when you are involved in a wreck.

All of the below is based on my experiences in California, but auto insurance varies a lot on a state by state basis, so...

The lowest hassle way of dealing with it is to report it to your insurance company, get them to cover it under your collision insurance, and give them the other party's information. They'll cover it, then when they get the money back from the other company you'll get your deposit back. There's no hit to your rates, your company has you as a customer so they're not motivated to screw you any more than usual, and you don't have to fight with anyone.

There are a few downsides, one is that when you're getting it fixed through your company, you're bound by the terms of your contract. This means that if your contract says they won't pay for OEM parts and you want them, that becomes a hassle. Another is that sometimes subrogation can take a really long time, so you might be out your deductible for a year or two.

If the other party is honest, I wouldn't think there's any need for additional evidence. If they're going to try to lie and claim it's not their fault, then who knows.

Super common, both in occurrence and that there is no police report. Fortunately the damages are also clearly consistent with your daughter being stopped in the travel lane and being backed into.

I recommend calling the carrier for the other driver and try to go through them. If you are not satisfied with their speed or service, then use your own coverage and your carrier can subrogate the other to get the $ back.

We hardly ever have the police respond to an accident unless there are injuries. In most states simply exchanging info is enough. If you have collision on the car what codrus said is the easiest way to go in most states.

At work when we have a collision and the other motorist requests the police we often wait two or more hours and when they get there if I've already exchanged info they will usually leave without taking a report.

Sonic wrote: Super common, both in occurrence and that there is no police report. Fortunately the damages are also clearly consistent with your daughter being stopped in the travel lane and being backed into. I recommend calling the carrier for the other driver and try to go through them. If you are not satisfied with their speed or service, then use your own coverage and your carrier can subrogate the other to get the $ back.

What he said. Police reports are great from an insurance perspective, but this scenario happens daily. As mentioned before, in many places the police won't make a report if it happens in a parking lot. The most they do is an info exchange, which you already have.

My daughter just got off the phone with her insurance company. The other woman already filed a claim stating that my daughter hit her. I think the photo of the damage should indicate who hit who, but I should have expected this little complication.

Ok, people suck. Just file through your own carrier, let them do the subrogation fight. Daughter can give statements that need to clearly say she was stopped for traffic while proceeding through the travel lane when the other car backed into the side of her car. The damages support this. It may end up going to inter company arbitration and the statement she gives, when combined with the damage photos should have things end up in your favor.

Thank you.

Sorry to hear Woody, best of luck to you guys. Exact same thing happened to me a few years ago, guy got spooked threw it in reverse and hit me. Admitted fault at scene, no police report, then told insurance I hit him. He didn't file a claim since he didn't have damage but my bumper was messed up and I had to pay out of pocket. I hope the fleas of a thousand camels infest his pubic regions. I even went to his house (in a gated community) to confront him about it. Still very sore about it.

I'll just betcha that beotch planned to lie about it before she even stepped out of her car... Woody, time to play vicious unrelenting insurance hardball. Get inside this woman's (and her insurance agent's) OODA Loop and keep it up until they wave the white flag with a full compensation check on it.