can an insurance increase premiums for accident when person does not report to court

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can an insurance increase premiums for accident when person does not report to court

I was in an accident where the person hit my car when I was coming out of a parallel. The police did not give either of us a ticket because he said he couldn’t decide who was telling the truth and would let the judge decide. On court date the person did not show up in court and the case was dismissed. Now I found out my premiums went up because she told them I was responsible for hitting her car. My insurance decided I was 20 at fault and she was 80 at fault but somehow she got my insurance to charge me 100 of the accident. Can something be done about this? It is completely wrong and I can’t understand how my insurance would accept that and raise my premiums. Can I sue this person? I never new anything ‘underhanded’ like this could be done and I’m not informed until my insurance came up for renewal.

Asked on March 21, 2017 under Accident Law, Georgia

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 6 years ago | Contributor

1) At the end of the day, your insurer can charge you anything they like, for any reason: there is no law setting auto insurance rates, limiting increases, etc. So whether fair or not, factually correct or not, the insurer can increase your rates this way; all you can is shop around for (hopefully) cheaper insurance.
2) You can't sue the other driver for your insurance rate increase because the discretion afforded your insurer to set rates means that legally, the other person is not responsible for the increase, regardless of what she said--the link between her comments and the insurance increase is too tenuous, because she does not control what rate is set. If you believe she was at fault and there was any damage or costs (e.g. a deductible) not paid by insurance to you, you could sue her for that amount.


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