Collision ClaimsPosted by hopefulPolicyholder962

State Farm is using 'comparative negligence' to slash my collision payout by 40% even though the other driver got the ticket. The dashcam shows him crossing the double yellow. Anyone fight comparative neg and win?

So back on March 4th i was driving home from a job site in northern Virginia, two lane state route, hilly country with limited sightlines. Coming around a slow curve i saw a Ford F-150 in my lane closing fast. I had maybe a second and a half to react. I swerved partially onto the shoulder, he clipped my driver side front fender and pulled my Tundra hard left. We both ended up off the road, his truck in a drainage ditch, mine wrapped around a road sign and into a small embankment. Nobody seriously hurt, both of us walked away with sore necks and bruises.

Police took the report, talked to both of us and a witness who was traveling the opposite direction and saw the F-150 cross the center line. The other driver got a citation for failure to keep right of center. My insurance is State Farm, his is Progressive. I filed the claim through my own collision coverage to get the repairs moving rather than wait for the third party process. My Tundra sustained $18,400 in damage. State Farm paid the body shop, less my $1,000 deductible, then opened a subrogation file to recover from Progressive.

Last week the State Farm subrogation rep called and told me they had reached a "comparative negligence" agreement with Progressive at 60/40 in my favor. Translation, Progressive admits 60% liability for their insured crossing the center line, but State Farm agreed that i carry 40% of the fault for "failing to take reasonable evasive action" given the road conditions. The result is i only get back 60% of my $1,000 deductible (so $600) and they say nothing else changes from my side. Except it does. My collision claim now shows as a partial at fault loss on the CLUE report, my premium is going up at renewal, and the carrier essentially conceded fault on my behalf without consulting me.

The dashcam footage clearly shows him entirely in my lane, no shoulder room on my right because of a guardrail, and maybe 90 feet of reaction distance at 45 mph. I went to driving school and the AAA defensive driving rule is 1.5 seconds to react to an unexpected hazard. I had 1.4 seconds. The idea that i bear 40% of fault for not perfectly executing an evasive maneuver in less than reaction time is insulting. Has anyone successfully challenged a comparative negligence allocation that their own carrier agreed to in subrogation? Can i file my own third party bodily injury claim against Progressive directly to bypass the State Farm sub agreement? Virginia is a contributory negligence state which makes this even weirder.

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State Farm is using 'comparative negligence' to slash my collision payout by 40% even though the other driver got the ticket. The dashcam shows him crossing the double yellow. Anyone fight comparative neg and win? | ClaimCave