A Car hit me!

I don't think bikes depreciate that rapidly.
The same thing happened to me a few years ago. The driver's insurance
company was so worried that I would have an injury claim that they were
very happy to pay for my bike in exchange for a release aginst any
claim for injuries.
I'd bet they'll do the sme for you. Their finacial risk is on the
injury side not the bike.

Never Enough Money said:

I had a little accident and was hit by a car at slow speed. I'm bruised
and scraped but will heal. (My thumb and forefinger are still numb
after 3 days - yes, I am receiving medical attention.) My bike is in
bad shape but possibly could be repaired -- need a bike shop to help
assess that.

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

Thanks!

I'm assuming since they're offering you anything, it's the car driver's
fault. You have been to a doctor then, correct? Start saying things
like "possible nerve damage" and "pain and suffering", you'll be amazed
how quickly their offer will increase to get you to sign a release. But
be sure you do know the extent of any longterm trouble before
eliminating the possibility of future compensation; persistent numbness
could well be serious.

Dan

Yep. I mentioned possible nerve damage and I wasn't kidding. My right
hand is just plain numb.

The police charge the driver with running a stop sign. It's unlikely
they can make that into my fault.

Thanks!

Never Enough Money said:

Yep. I mentioned possible nerve damage and I wasn't kidding. My right
hand is just plain numb.

The police charge the driver with running a stop sign. It's unlikely
they can make that into my fault.

Thanks!

If the driver was cited, you have nothing to worry about. Be sure & get
a thorough medical evaluation, including any needed tests & consultation
from a neurologist etc. before you even consider settling for just being
compensated for your bike. You may well need physical therapy for a
while, etc. By all means, cover your ass!

Dan

Never Enough Money said:

I had a little accident and was hit by a car at slow speed. I'm bruised
and scraped but will heal. (My thumb and forefinger are still numb
after 3 days - yes, I am receiving medical attention.) My bike is in
bad shape but possibly could be repaired -- need a bike shop to help
assess that.

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

Thanks!

They

Quoted message said:

depreciate it 10% per year.......

Tell the insurance company to get screwed. Their insured is the one
that hit you..........their problem to resolve. You did not asked to be
hit. Get your LBS to back you in the way of repair estimate or
replacement value. If all else fails, litigate

Never Enough Money said:

I had a little accident and was hit by a car at slow speed. I'm bruised
and scraped but will heal. (My thumb and forefinger are still numb
after 3 days - yes, I am receiving medical attention.) My bike is in
bad shape but possibly could be repaired -- need a bike shop to help
assess that.

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

Thanks!

Two years ago, my spouse was broadsided by a car that ran a 4-way stop
sign. He was three days in ICU with his injuries. We contracted an
attorney to have our interests covered. It took about 1.5 years for us
and the insurance company to final settle. The least worry of the
insurance company was replacing his bike and equipment.

Stick by your guns and insist you get fully recompensed for your bike's
replacement value. The insured should have minimum liability at the
least, and that's still not an insignificant sum, unless great bodily
harm has been done. I'm sure the insurance company can afford to pay
that value.

You could always say something to the tune of "hm.., perhaps I should
hire a lawyer to protect my interests" to the insurance company's
adjuster <VBEG>.

Skyhooks
h m a r d i s "aahtt" u i u c "ddoott" e d u

P.S. If you paid $1900 in 1990, then I wonder what the same or similar
bike would cost today! That's what you should demand from the insurance
company.

STOP!!!

Get a lawyer right away. The insurer is trying to bail on you. You are
entitled to a bike, pain and suffering, lost wages, medical expenses etc. I
was hit a couple of years ago and ended up in the hospital.

Your situation may not be as bad. However, get checked out and get a lawyer
to represent you. You can be fair minded or you can decide to sign the
release for a few thousand dollars.

--
"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone.
Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life:
if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion
which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."

Thomas Jefferson
"Never Enough Money" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Yep. I mentioned possible nerve damage and I wasn't kidding. My right
hand is just plain numb.

The police charge the driver with running a stop sign. It's unlikely
they can make that into my fault.

Thanks!

You are entitled to be made whole. It's easy enough for an insurance
company to tell you how they have a policy under which you are not entitled
to very much money. They don't make the law, and their statements about how
little they will pay are just part of the game they play to minimize their
cost.

A friend of mine was rear ended by a driver who also ran from the scene,
leaving his license plate imbedded in my friend's car. He would have
settled for car repair, but the insurance company started playing this same
game, which made my friend mad. He went to a lawyer, and ended up
collecting over $50,000.

Never Enough Money said:

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

That may be what they offer, but that's not necessarily what they need
to pay you. Get a lawyer, now, to take a look at it. Given the
possible nerve injury, and the loss of a top-quality bicycle ($1,900 in
1990 would be worth quite a bit more now), and that it was the driver's
fault (as mentioned downthread), you are almost certainly due more than
some artificially-depreciated value.

You may need to get a bike shop to assess the pre-crash value of your
bike.

Regardless, get a lawyer: the cost is almost certain to be worth it.

And let us know how it turns out; there's a good chance that we'll all
be in your shoes someday.

--
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
An article just this morning talks about how IT work sucks the soul
right out of a person. At the end of a day digging ditches, you feel
good. Tired, yes, but you have the whole endorphin rush thing from
the exercise, as well as a real feeling of accomplishment. The ditch
is dug. You can see it is dug. Nobody is going to come along later
and ask can you also make it an email sending ditch with instant
messaging. It's a ditch. You know where you stand.
--Some Guy Named Chris

The lawyer will take 1/3. That is the most common charge for contingency
cases.

--
"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone.
Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life:
if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion
which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."

Thomas Jefferson
"Robert Uhl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Never Enough Money said:

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

That may be what they offer, but that's not necessarily what they need
to pay you. Get a lawyer, now, to take a look at it. Given the
possible nerve injury, and the loss of a top-quality bicycle ($1,900 in
1990 would be worth quite a bit more now), and that it was the driver's
fault (as mentioned downthread), you are almost certainly due more than
some artificially-depreciated value.

You may need to get a bike shop to assess the pre-crash value of your
bike.

Regardless, get a lawyer: the cost is almost certain to be worth it.

And let us know how it turns out; there's a good chance that we'll all
be in your shoes someday.

--
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
An article just this morning talks about how IT work sucks the soul
right out of a person. At the end of a day digging ditches, you feel
good. Tired, yes, but you have the whole endorphin rush thing from
the exercise, as well as a real feeling of accomplishment. The ditch
is dug. You can see it is dug. Nobody is going to come along later
and ask can you also make it an email sending ditch with instant
messaging. It's a ditch. You know where you stand.
--Some Guy Named Chris

Uhl and Wax are right. Get a lawyer!

Never Enough Money said:

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play on on TV, but I have watched a few
episodes of Judge Judy and the people's court. It seems that legally,
you're not ever entitled to be made "better" then you were before the
incident, so you're not entitled to a new bike to replace the old one.

Therefore, I'm guessing all you'll get is the depreciated value,
although if you could show that used version of your bike are worth more
then they're saying, then perhaps you could get more then they're offering.

Rich

Watching judge Judy says a great deal (unfortunately). Get a lawyer!! Judge
Judy will suck anybodies [censored] for TV ratings--including Alberto Gonzalez
(sp?) or Pat Robertson or Jimmy Swaggart on and on.

America has to turn off the TV (except for a few exceptions) and start
reading and thinking...

--
"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone.
Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life:
if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion
which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."

Thomas Jefferson
"Rich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Never Enough Money said:

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play on on TV, but I have watched a few
episodes of Judge Judy and the people's court. It seems that legally,
you're not ever entitled to be made "better" then you were before the
incident, so you're not entitled to a new bike to replace the old one.

Therefore, I'm guessing all you'll get is the depreciated value, although
if you could show that used version of your bike are worth more then
they're saying, then perhaps you could get more then they're offering.

Rich

"Rich" wrote: (clip) Therefore, I'm guessing all you'll get is the
depreciated value, although if you could show that used version of your
bike are worth more then they're saying, then perhaps you could get more
then they're offering.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Their formula for depreciating the bike would make it almost worthless. You
are entitled to have the bike put back as good as it was before the
accident, or replaced. The replacement has to be as good as the one that
was damaged--including fit. Do you think they will be able to find you one?
When the claims adjuster realizes the spot you've got him in, he is likely
to say, "Okay, we'll buy you a new bike."

Never Enough Money said:

I had a little accident and was hit by a car at slow speed. I'm bruised
and scraped but will heal. (My thumb and forefinger are still numb
after 3 days - yes, I am receiving medical attention.) My bike is in
bad shape but possibly could be repaired -- need a bike shop to help
assess that.

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

Thanks!

Don't cave in to their "depreciation" story.

I don't have any bike crash stories to tell, but a guy ran a red light
and totaled my dear old, much beloved car. It was about 13 years old,
and I'd recently paid to have its engine rebuilt.

The insurance adjuster wanted to pay me low end blue book value, with
no allowance for the rebuilt engine. We signed NOTHING, and especially
refused to sign medical releases. He called frequently, but - after
conferring with friends in the insurance business - I stonewalled him,
telling him his offer for the car was far too low.

After a period of about a month with no calls, he phoned and asked
"what it would take to settle this claim." I shot high by about 30%,
figuring he'd try to dicker me down. But he said: "[pause] OK,
we'll send you a check."

If you can afford to wait him out, do so. Sign nothing. If you can't
afford that, I would consider a lawyer.

- Frank Krygowski

Never Enough Money said:

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

You should expect to end up with a bike of the same quality, in the
same operating condition, with the same fit, as the bike that was
damaged. If the insurance company can't find one just like yours,
they can buy you a replacement. If they don't want to do that, sue
'em.

Now this really sounds like the typical insurance adjuster's game.
There are a couple ways to play it. You might just casually say,
"Well, given my injuries, I guess I'll have to talk to a lawyer
anyhow, so I'll just let my attorney talk to you about the bike, too."
(The adjuster I dealt with would have bought me almost anything to
keep this from coming to pass!) Or you could feel another
$2,000-3,000 of pain and suffering, which will feel better when you
get your new ride.

Whatever you do, don't sign anything from that insurance adjuster
anytime soon.

Pat

Email address works as is.

Quoted message said:

STOP!!!

Get a lawyer right away. The insurer is trying to bail on you. You are
entitled to a bike, pain and suffering, lost wages, medical expenses etc.
I was hit a couple of years ago and ended up in the hospital.

Keep in mind it's only been three days. The insurance company is feeling
things out, seeing if they can get him to settle quickly. That doesn't mean
you have to get a lawyer to get taken care of. When a kid backed out of his
driveway into a relatively-high-speed road with zero visibility, nailing me
across the rear of his car, I lost a tooth and damaged the fork on my bike.
The insurance company contacted me pretty quickly, hoping there was nothing
much wrong and that I'd sign for a small amount of money (really small) and
a fork for the bike. Yeah, right. I told the adjuster the truth- that it was
too early in my visits to the dentist to really have a clue as to what it
would take to repair the tooth.

A couple dentist visits later and the insurance adjuster calls again, and
when I explain that we still don't know how the tooth situation is going to
come out, he starts in with this stuff about how it really wasn't the kid's
fault, that bikes don't belong there (???!!!) etc. I remained cool (don't
know why, but it was one of my smarter moves), then went out to the scene of
the crime, took photos, diagramed things out, and sent it to the insurance
adjuster. His tone changed *very* quickly... all of a sudden he was my best
friend. After the final visit to the dentist, we (the dentist & I) worked
out a worst-case scenario (in the event the root of the broken tooth went
bad and caused more problems) and settled for the amount of money it would
take to deal with that. Actually, there was about a 30% addition for "pain &
suffering", which was fine, I wasn't even asking for it.

Of course, I'd forgotten entirely to have the fork taken care of... duh.

Quoted message said:

Your situation may not be as bad. However, get checked out and get a
lawyer to represent you. You can be fair minded or you can decide to sign
the release for a few thousand dollars.

I'm sure a lawyer could have gotten me a bunch more money, but why? I was
adequately taken care of. As for being "fair minded", I'm not so sure what's
"fair minded" about trying to extract the absolute maximum amount of money
out of the situation. That seems more "opportunistic" to me.

For what it's worth, I'm told the general rule of thumb is that you can
expect a "pain & suffering" amount of approximately 3 times your medical
bills for minor-to-moderate injuries.

If there's one piece of advice that, I think, is more important that seeing
a lawyer, it's that you need to seek documented medical attention following
an accident. In general, you're going to feel far worse between 24-48 hours
after an accident than you do shortly after it happens, so there may be a
tendency to downplay the seriousness and think you can tough it out. If you
choose that route, you're dramatically reducing the likelihood of your claim
being taken seriously.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"Brian Wax" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

STOP!!!

Get a lawyer right away. The insurer is trying to bail on you. You are
entitled to a bike, pain and suffering, lost wages, medical expenses etc.
I was hit a couple of years ago and ended up in the hospital.

Your situation may not be as bad. However, get checked out and get a
lawyer to represent you. You can be fair minded or you can decide to sign
the release for a few thousand dollars.

--
"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone.
Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life:
if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion
which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."

Thomas Jefferson
"Never Enough Money" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Yep. I mentioned possible nerve damage and I wasn't kidding. My right
hand is just plain numb.

The police charge the driver with running a stop sign. It's unlikely
they can make that into my fault.

Thanks!

Year's ago I had a motorcycle injury where a guy obviously blew through a
stop sign and I ended up doing a 360 over his car. I was dumb because the
guy's insurance company was sooooooo nice, they couldn't do enough to be
sure I was ok and have my cycle repaired. As long as I signed off.
Insurance companies and their attornies (and attornies in general) always
start negotiations from way off in left field and expect to meet somewhere in
the middle. If they're being decent to you right now, it means they know you
have a case. I'm not necesarily saying being as legally aggressive as you
can be, sometimes that takes a lot of time and mental fortitutde; but, it
sounds like an option for you.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I had a little accident and was hit by a car at slow speed. I'm bruised
and scraped but will heal. (My thumb and forefinger are still numb
after 3 days - yes, I am receiving medical attention.) My bike is in
bad shape but possibly could be repaired -- need a bike shop to help
assess that.

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

Thanks!

"Never Enough Money" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I had a little accident and was hit by a car at slow speed. I'm bruised
and scraped but will heal. (My thumb and forefinger are still numb
after 3 days - yes, I am receiving medical attention.) My bike is in
bad shape but possibly could be repaired -- need a bike shop to help
assess that.

The driver's insurance company told me they only pay for the
depreciated value of the bike. I paid $1900.00 for it in 1990. They
depreciate it 10% per year. I also put a high end Look carbon fork on
it and had it repainted.

My question to this group: should I expect to be paid replacement costs
or the depreciated costs?

Thanks!

Provided the 'accident' was not your fault in the first place, the insurance
company *appears* to be doing the standard insurance company bully-boy
tactics and trying to get out of it's responsibilities in providing you with
a reasonable replacement. Was the 'accident' reported to the police? Over
here in UK, any such incident where a person is hurt must be reported to the
police. Are you a member of the equivalent of the UK's CTC (Cyclists'
Touring Club) where as part of membership you get the services of legal
beagles to act on your behalf in such cases, and they successfully stop such
bully-boy tactics. If you don't, does your cycling press carry adverts from
lawyers who specialise in this area who can work *for you* on a no-win,
no-fee basis? Again, we have such over here.

As well as the cost of replacing the bike - methinks the insurance company
should be coughing-up cost of replacement transport until bike is replaced -
medical costs and other such incidentals - keep receipts!

Cheers, helen s