What happens when auto accident is not your fault but considered "no fault?"?
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Answer:
Ok, I am assuming what you mean by "no fault," means based on the evidence provided, the police officer couldn't state who was at fault. Both of you are saying you had a green light.
When the evidence is inconclusive, often a claim will be rated as driver vs. driver. This means each respective insurance pays for their insured's car, but they don't go after the other insurance for the money. The only consequence to you in this scenario would be paying your deductible and not being able to get it back.
Your insurance is going to take recorded statements from everyone they can. Based on driver/witness statements, and the points of impact to both cars, they will decide who is liable. If everyone and everything is inconclusive, your insurance will likely side with you. If you were obeying traffic laws and no one can prove with physical evidence otherwise, they will rate your claim as not-at-fault. This does NOT bar the other company from coming after your insurance for their damages.
If the other insurance feels their driver is not at fault, they will argue their case with your insurance. If folks cannot come to an agreement, a couple different things can happen. They are:
1. Intercompany arbitration. If insurances can't agree, in order to protect everyone from the high cost of law suits and legal fees, most companies participate in arbitration. This is similar to suit in that both insurances present all their evidence, and an independent third party will decide who's responsible for what. Arbitration is final and binding.
2. Law Suit. If both parties can't agree, occasionally suits happen. Really, it would have to be financially worth an attorney's time to file suit, so this doesn't happen much unless the other party wants a significant injury settlement. Since you didn't mention it here, I have to assume no one was injured. If you're worried about injuries, mention it to your insurance adjuster and ask if there is an exposure (are they claiming they're injured and to what extent).
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Your insurance shouldn't go up unless you're at fault, and then how much is going to depend on how much your insurance winds up paying out, and a few other factors like your driving record and prior accident history. The best way to answer this question is once your claim is resolved and your insurance knows exactly how much was paid.
Best of luck to you--I am glad everyone is (generally speaking), ok!
Your insurance will speak with the witness...in the case of conflicting statements, the witness whose statement is more credible is who they go with.
If your insurance company determines you are not responsible for the accident, your rates shouldn't rise. However, this is a question for your agent or the underwriting, not the claims department as they don't know nor do they care if a claim will or won't raise your rates. There job is to pay claims.
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