Can I fight the insurance company on this?
I was in a car accident in late February. Technically the accident was my fault but I did not receive a ticket. The city I was in did not plow and there was a lot of snow, ice, and slush on the ground on a very busy divided highway (most people have heard of it thanks to Eminem, I was on 8 Mile in Detroit). I could not stop even though I was going slow so I swerved to miss a car (I was in the turn-around/Michigan Left lane) up onto the grassy, snowy median, but I slid all the way over it and back into the lane and hit the other car from the side. The rear passenger door on my car hit their driver door. I had no damage on my car and the guy "claimed" I damaged his door handle, but the car had a ton of damage to the driver side from a previous accident. He admitted the extensive damage on the car was from an accident he had a couple weeks before. Even the officer told me he didn't believe I caused any damage to their car because there was nothing on my car to show I did, but I admitted I hit him so the officer took his word for it in the report. I also rear-ended another car, but there was no damage to their vehicle or mine so that person left.
But, because I hit 2 cars and 2 curbs (sliding onto and off the median area), I was injured (no one in the other vehicles were and I was alone in my car). The jerking and bouncing around from all of it aggravated a back injury I have and made it much worse, as well as injury to my arm, leg, and neck. I didn't notice at first and opted not to go to the hospital (adrenaline?), but when I woke up the next morning I was in severe pain. I went to see my pain dr explaining what happened and he confirmed my injuries, gave me pain medications, sent me to physical therapy 3 times a week, and scheduled another appt to reevaluate my injuries and see what other treatments I'll be needing as well as scheduling MRI's and more x-rays.
Well the car I was driving is my mother-in-law's, she has alzheimer's disease now and won't be driving anymore so she was giving the car to me this month for my birthday. Next week we were suppose to go to the secretary of state and sign it over to me and everything. Well that other driver made a claim for their door handle, and I was talking to a lawyer to make my own claim for my no-fault benefits since I was injured and I will need my medical bills and stuff covered. We received a letter from the insurance company saying they would be cancelling the policy because they claim we committed fraud. The policy is in her name, and they are stating that she hasn't driven the car in a long time (it hasn't been very long) and that she doesn't live at the address where the car is parked anymore. That isn't true. My husband and I live with her at her house where the car is parked. She often stays at my sister-in-laws house because my sister-in-law doesn't work and has more time to care for her, but she still stays here too and her address on her license, bills, everything even her stuff is still at this address. I'm going to get a hold of my lawyer again on Monday to see what I can do, but the insurance company won't speak to me about any of it because my brother-in-law is her power of attorney so they will only speak to him. We have them talking to him instead of her because we don't want to upset her, her short term memory is going so she often forgets the accident even happened. Can they do this or are they just trying to get out of paying or trying to scare us out of making a claim? Yes I use her car to run errands sometimes because I don't have a car (my friend wrecked my car) but it's still her car, she's still licensed, she's still paying for her insurance. Do you think my lawyer will be able to help me with this so I can pay for my medical care?