How to negotiate with Insurance after an accident?

You have to take it into the shop, and have the repair guy go over it, to find out WHY the light is on. If it turns out to be a bum fuse, for example, then no, that WASN'T covered by insurance.

You have no grounds to negotiate this, until you know WHY the light is on.

Your insurance *might* help you with this, if you have COLLISION coverage on your policy, and yes, you'd have to pay the deductible.

When you are in an accident, where you are hit and the damages you get can cause other problems and can be expected. Since you were rear ended and pushed into a car in front of you, you would have both rear and front end damages. The rear end damages would have nothing to do with your airbag, but the front end might "possibly".

If the repairs have been completed, then go back to the shop and tell them and they should reinspect your car. If they can show that the airbag light was damaged somehow from this accident, then they would file a supplemental estimate to the 3rd party insurance for a check to have it repaired. It happens all the time, since most estimates are written on what they see and after they tear down a car find other problems and file a supplemental estimate that most insurance companies will pay.

But if no recourse, then you can file a claim on your own insurance and yes you most likely will have to pay your deductible, but will get reimbursed back when the 3rd party reimbursed your insurance plus your deductible. But;;;;;;;if your insurance does not believe that this light is tied to this accident but was a problem PRIOR to the accident, then both the 3rd party or YOUR insurance would not pay. There are a lot of cases that after an accident, that the people will claim other problems that in no way could have been from the accident, since it makes no sense and understandably people get upset.

Forget the lawyer, since this is only property damage, wont take on period. Since a lawyer can do just like I am telling you to do and the end result will be the same, either it is due to the accident or not. Also the cost for a lawyer would most likely cost you more than to get this fixed and no the insurance company NEVER pays for a lawyer, even in a personal injury case, it is only paid from the settlement you get that they take their cut.

good luck

after you provide the best proof you can [mechanic and the testimony of anyone who drove the car before the accident that the airbag light wasn't on] and the other guy's insurance refuses, you'll have to sue or forget it.

if you've already signed a release to the other guy's insurance, you probably can't sue successfully, so we hope you didn't do that.

You are making a big mistake trying to negotiate with the other party's insurer - they have no contractual obligation to you. What about YOUR insurance?

If you are not willing to go through your insurance and not willing to accept whatever settlement the other party's insurer offers, your only remedy is to actually sue the other party directly.

You have a mechanic look at the problem and ascertain the cause. If you are correct then you send that to the insurance company. You need to proof

You need a lawyer to do the negotiating.