![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crisis du jour update
Sep. 24th, 2008 07:46 pmThis morning I gave a recorded statement it the insurance investigator about my Ex's stolen Jeep. Given that my involvement was limited, so was the interview. Afterward we talked a little about what the cops were--and were not--doing to investigate. He also told me that he's talked to the mechanic a couple of times, and that he's changed his story a little each time. He's gone from telling me he junked the car, to telling the cops he didn't know what happened to it, to telling the cops and the insurance company that my Ex or I took it, to finally conceding that he thinks "someone" took it.
The clincher was the investigator got him to admit that he no longer has the key to it. The week before it disappeared, I took my Ex to get some stuff out of it (a tent and a sleeping bag) and used the extra key that I'd been holding for her (since when she'd locked her keys in it two years ago). We had to unlock the car, and locked it when we were done.
So now we just wait for the state police to finish their part of the investigation, and then (hopefully) negotiate with the insurance company about how they are going to value the loss and how much they are going to cover it. Depending on what that last number turns into, we will then have to decide if it's worth going to small claims court in pursuit of the balance of the value of the car.
On the one hand, it's a fairly straightforward decision: If we believe the car is worth, say, 5 grand, and the insurance company--for whatever reason--says it's only worth 3, is it worth the time and the sixty-five bucks to go to court? Sure, particularly because we can not only sue the mechanic, we can name the gas station and the oil company as a defendant. (If you later hear of an "accidental ordinance discharge" by the Russian navy in the direction of central New Hampshire, you'll know that Hugo Chavez didn't approve.)
On the other hand, if we do pursue a small claim in that manner, there's nothing stopping the garage or the oil company from hiring an attorney, counter-suing and ask for the case to be moved to district court. Or worse, counter-suing, asking the claims to be split, leaving our claim in small claims court and moving just theirs to district court. And then further asking to split the claims, effectively suing me and my Ex in two separate cases.
So on the other, other hand, the safer course of action would be to just file a complaint in small claims court against the mechanic. Most of this started out as a "he said, she said" disagreement; but he's changed his story so many times now that he looks like he's hiding something, even if it's just how dumb he's handled this. And that just might be enough to sway a judge who's only looking for the "preponderance of evidence" on one side or the other.
Sounds too crazy to be real? Remember, this is my life we talking about here. And I've now somehow managed to have three hands.
The clincher was the investigator got him to admit that he no longer has the key to it. The week before it disappeared, I took my Ex to get some stuff out of it (a tent and a sleeping bag) and used the extra key that I'd been holding for her (since when she'd locked her keys in it two years ago). We had to unlock the car, and locked it when we were done.
So now we just wait for the state police to finish their part of the investigation, and then (hopefully) negotiate with the insurance company about how they are going to value the loss and how much they are going to cover it. Depending on what that last number turns into, we will then have to decide if it's worth going to small claims court in pursuit of the balance of the value of the car.
On the one hand, it's a fairly straightforward decision: If we believe the car is worth, say, 5 grand, and the insurance company--for whatever reason--says it's only worth 3, is it worth the time and the sixty-five bucks to go to court? Sure, particularly because we can not only sue the mechanic, we can name the gas station and the oil company as a defendant. (If you later hear of an "accidental ordinance discharge" by the Russian navy in the direction of central New Hampshire, you'll know that Hugo Chavez didn't approve.)
On the other hand, if we do pursue a small claim in that manner, there's nothing stopping the garage or the oil company from hiring an attorney, counter-suing and ask for the case to be moved to district court. Or worse, counter-suing, asking the claims to be split, leaving our claim in small claims court and moving just theirs to district court. And then further asking to split the claims, effectively suing me and my Ex in two separate cases.
So on the other, other hand, the safer course of action would be to just file a complaint in small claims court against the mechanic. Most of this started out as a "he said, she said" disagreement; but he's changed his story so many times now that he looks like he's hiding something, even if it's just how dumb he's handled this. And that just might be enough to sway a judge who's only looking for the "preponderance of evidence" on one side or the other.
Sounds too crazy to be real? Remember, this is my life we talking about here. And I've now somehow managed to have three hands.
