Caveat Piaculum

Thank you for all the well wishes, both in comments and in email. It really helped those first couple of days when everything was so overwhelming.

At my follow up visit with the doctor, I was diagnosed with a sprained back. The sprain is causing swelling, which in turn is putting pressure on the spinal cord. It's not the kind of pressure that would, say, cause you to become a parapalegic, but because there are so many nerves, it is causing a lot of pain.* So now I am in physical therapy, which is supposed to help reduce the tension, control some of the inflammation in conjunction with the 800 mg ibuprofen horse pills I've been swallowing, and hopefully help the muscles to heal correctly so that there won't be any lingering problems. It seems like I was lucky and the joints were not affected, just the muscles. The general consensus seems to be that it will be a good month before I'll be back to something like normal.

Unfortunately, things are NOT going so swimmingly with the Other Driver's insurance company. I feel like I've done nothing all week but fight with the various people working on each tiny piece of my claim, and it's pissing me off royally. I bore NO FAULT whatsoever in this accident, and I bore the brunt of the injury, both physically and financially. I am not unreasonable, but I want to be put back into the position I was in before Little Miss I-Speed-And-Don't-Pay-Attention-To-The-Traffic came into my life.

Actually, what I want, what I really want is to transfer my suffering onto her. I want her to wake up every morning in pain, I want her to be unable to carry a basket full of laundry to the basement, I want her to be unable to sit or stand or lay in any position comfortably. And I want her car to be destroyed. Then I want her to have to deal with the jackassery of her insurance company while juggling work, doctor's appointments, and the search for a replacement car, all while being exhausted from being in pain all the time. Oh, and I want her to find that she will be unable to replace her vehicle for anything like the money the insurance company claims her car is worth on the open market.

The best part of the week-- and by "best", I mean "the part that nearly made me lose my shit"-- was when I went to the body shop where they towed the wreckage of my car so that I could get the rest of my personal items out of it before they haul it off to be junked, and the stupid cow who caused the accident was standing there on the steps, talking on her cellphone, bitching to someone about how the insurance company was taking away her rental car, but her SUV wouldn't be finished for two more days, boo freaking hoo. She saw me and fell silent, watching me walk past. I did not acknowledge her in any way, but I wanted to punch her stupid face in. Especially because her insurance company had also ordered me to return my rental car on the basis that they'd determined the value of my car, so...

The second best part of the week was when I got to yell my way up the chain of command about that. I guess I'm just not understanding how it is that I am deprived of my means of transportation due to the negligent action of Stupid Cow-- the means for me to get to work and to the doctor's appointments that are necessary thanks to that selfsame negligence on Stupid Cow's part, not to mention the means by which I would be able to conduct the search for a replacement for the car that she destroyed, but it's not her (or, by extension, her insurance company's) responsibility to provide me with a replacement for the duration of the time that it takes to resolve this situation. It was only after I moved through five different people that I was able to get a temporary reprieve-- a three day extension. I still have to turn my rental car in tomorrow. Now ask me if I've received a check for the car. That would be a big negatory, good buddy! So how am I supposed to replace it? Well, Erie Insurance sure doesn't give a rat's big fat patootie! That's MY PROBLEM to resolve! Screw the fact that STUPID COW WAS AT FAULT, NOT ME.

Then there's the method they used to value my car. I guess I should be grateful that they weren't using the blue book value. Instead, I was told that they would use a database of actual cars listed for sale by dealers and private sellers and pull a list of 1999 Toyota Corolla CE with mileage within the 77,000 that was on mine at the time of the accident. They would then calculate two averages, one national and one local market, and pay the average of those averages. Seems fair enough on the surface. Except when I actually got my copy of the valuation, the fourteen cars listed on it included a) the lesser version of the Corolla (the VE), which cost quite a lot less at the time I bought my car, but which included significantly less in equipment and features, b) several cars with well over 100,000 miles on them, and c) several cars with no mileage specified in the ads whatsoever.

When I performed a manual search of about seven big online classified listings like cars.com, I found a grand total of ten 1999 Corolla CEs with between 71,000 and 82,000 miles on them in the entire country. One had damage on the driver's side door and was selling for $5,800. The others all ranged between $6,495 and $9,599. The average price worked out to something like $7,900. The insurance company's average figure? $5,400. The amount they bumped that for the brand new, just installed in January tires? $10-- $5 for the rear tires and $5 for the front.** We argued. Long and loud. They are doing a second search. I hope that it reveals a much better result, but obviously I'm not holding my breath.

Look, I understand that it's their job to settle my claim for as little money as possible, but that really shouldn't mean acting unfairly. Yes, please do an accurate inspection of my car and please also do a proper valuation based on the actual value of the car, not just what I think it's worth. I'm not asking for them to buy me a brand new Prius*** or pay off my law school loans. In the words of Sally, All I want is what I have coming to me".

Tomorrow is another day. Full of arguing with the insurance company. If I'd wanted to do this sort of thing, I would have sought a job as a personal injury attorney. I'm really starting to wonder if I need to seek out the services of just such a person.


*I probably just mangled that explanation. But we're not in court, so meh, close enough.

**I really, really want to know where they buy these tires that cost $2.50 each. That could totally come in handy down the road!

*** That would totally be sweet, though.