The Shoulder
The Shoulder
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Insuranceclear-raven-149

Other driver's insurance says I caused a crash I wasn't even IN — now threatening collections??

Posting this for my brother because he doesn't have an account and asked me to share his situation. He's given me the okay to put this out there and is reading the replies.

About six weeks ago my brother was on a busy four-lane road during rush hour. Traffic ahead of him suddenly seized up — we're talking highway speeds going to zero in seconds. He managed to brake and maneuver without hitting anyone. He heard a loud crunch behind him but when he checked his mirrors he saw his car was clear of everything, so he kept going. He had no idea it turned into a multi-car pileup.

Fast forward about two weeks and he gets a call out of nowhere from an insurance company he's never heard of. They tell him he caused the whole accident because he "stopped abruptly" and now they're holding him 100% liable for everyone's damages. One of the people in the crash has already hired a personal injury attorney apparently.

They got his plate somehow — probably a dashcam from one of the other cars.

Here's the part that makes this so much worse: his insurance had lapsed. He'd been going through some financial stuff and missed a payment about three weeks before this happened. So he doesn't have a carrier to call and say "handle this."

The adjuster on the phone was aggressive and said if he doesn't cooperate and work out a payment arrangement, they'll send it to collections and potentially pursue a judgment against him.

He's panicking. He genuinely was not at fault — he didn't hit a single car. But he's also uninsured and doesn't know what his rights even are right now. Does he have to talk to these people? Can they actually force him to pay? Any insight is really appreciated.

16replies

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16 replies

  • 9
    candid-grouse-306

    That adjuster is absolutely trying to bully him into admitting fault or making a payment. That's a classic pressure tactic — the second he agrees to anything or pays even a small amount it can be used as an implied admission. Tell him to stop talking to them. Seriously, no more calls, no more "cooperation." They are not on his side, not even a little bit.

    • 8
      mellow-late-shift390

      Exactly my experience. Persistence paid off in the end.

  • 18
    keen-marmot-395

    I worked in claims for years and I can tell you — when a carrier can't find a liable insured to go after, sometimes they cast a really wide net and hope someone panics and pays. The plate from a dashcam doesn't automatically make your brother the cause of anything. An adjuster saying someone is "100% liable" over the phone with zero formal investigation completed is a scare tactic, full stop. That's not how fault determinations actually work. There should be a police report, witness statements, maybe accident reconstruction. Has he even seen any of that documentation?

    • 2
      gentle-walker704

      How long did it end up taking in your case?

  • 14
    curious-crow-659

    A few things worth knowing: (1) An insurance company for the other driver has no direct authority to force your brother to pay them anything. They'd have to sue him and get a judgment first. (2) The collections threat is real but it's also premature — they're skipping a lot of steps. (3) He should absolutely get a free consultation with a personal injury or defense attorney before he says another word to these people. Being uninsured is a problem, but it doesn't mean he has no rights or options.

    • 5
      honest-passenger584

      Did you have to escalate, or did they come around after the first ask?

    • 8
      mellow-backseat938

      Adding this: keep copies of every email. It mattered for me.

  • 21
    clear-lynx-838

    Not legal advice, but your brother really should not be communicating with that insurance company without some kind of representation. Uninsured doesn't mean undefended — he can still hire his own attorney, and many PI defense attorneys do free consults. The uninsured status creates separate legal exposure depending on the state, but that's a distinct issue from whether he's actually liable for the crash. Those two things shouldn't get conflated. Get a consult.

    • 7
      weathered-backseat434

      Following up on this — any update on how it turned out?

  • 11
    brave-wren-731

    Almost the exact same thing happened to a friend of mine — got blamed for a chain-reaction crash he wasn't physically part of. It dragged on for months but ultimately went nowhere because there was zero physical evidence his car touched anything. No damage, no paint transfer, nothing. If your brother's car has no damage that's actually a really important fact.

  • 5
    curious-wolf-780

    This is a lot of stress and I just want to say — the anxiety of dealing with something like this when you feel blindsided is genuinely awful. Make sure your brother is talking to someone and not just internalizing all of it. The legal stuff is solvable. Stress that goes unmanaged for months really isn't.

    • 5
      curious-passenger176

      Wish I had seen this a month ago — would have saved me a lot of stress.

  • 6
    spry-finch-354

    Three things: 1) Stop answering their calls. 2) Get a free consult with an attorney this week, not next month. 3) Pull together anything he has — photos of his car showing no damage, his route that day, anything that shows he wasn't in contact with other vehicles. Evidence disappears fast. Do it now.

    • 4
      gentle-dreamer174

      Curious whether you did this on your own or had help with it.

  • 11
    swift-newt-720

    I don't want to pile on but I do want to understand the situation better — did he stop suddenly for a real reason (debris, car cutting in, something in the road) or did traffic just compress normally and he hit his brakes hard? Because that context actually matters for how liability gets analyzed. Not saying he's at fault, just that the details matter a lot here.

  • 7
    cool-wren-222

    Ugh, this is so scary to read. Your brother sounds like he's doing his best and just got caught in a terrible situation. Please make sure he knows he doesn't have to face this alone — even just having someone sit with him during a free attorney consult can help. Wishing him the best.