Legal Question in Insurance Law in Iowa

Re: auto insurance

The insurers have a legitimate interest in figuring out which driver caused which damage. They are not using anything against you, they are just trying to figure out what their respective shares of the damage will be.

Each insurer is required only to compensate you for the damage caused by its own insured. The first driver's insurer does not have to pay for damage the second driver caused later. The other insurer need only pay to return your car to the condition it was in before the second driver hit you -- in other words, to the condition it was in *after* the first accident.

You may want to hire a lawyer (or at least an insurance adjuster) to protect your interests, since the insurers may try to do this in a way that denies you some of the compensation to which you are entitled. But the fact that the companies may do this has no bearing on their right to investigate the accident or in the fact that each is responsible only for what its own client did.

If you have collision insurance you may want to get your own carrier involved. The other drivers' insurers don't owe any legal duties to you, but your insurer does. It will probably pay for the repairs and then deal with the other insurers for their respective shares, thus saving you the aggravation and the expense of doing this yourself.