text: Our backyard neighbor lost control of his vehicle as he turned
  Our backyard neighbor lost control of his vehicle as he turned to pull into his driveway. He drove through his iron gate blocking the entrance to his driveway. He proceeded to drive past the side of his house on his driveway until he drove through the wooden fence in his/our back yard. The cement piling two or three feet deep in the ground came up under his car and lifted the front end of his car. The tires were high enough to miss the cement slab our shed was built upon. Our metal shed stopped the car from proceeding any further and would have crashed into our house. The reason our shed was able to accomplish this is because it was packed tight. We are hurricane Katrina victims and when our house was condemned we had to move to rental properties. At first our stuff was put in storage and we move into very small quarters. About a year later we moved again and rented a three bedroom house. We brought our stuff out of storage and the third bedroom was adapted for storage. The leftovers went into storage in the shed outside. We called the auto insurance to make a claim. They eventually sent an adjuster who said they don't pay him enough to go through that much of a mess. He told us to make a list of damages and he would submit that to the insurance company. A preliminary tabulation came to almost $10,000 worth of damage. We discovered more later and residual effects of the impact is even now destroying more things as the months go by. Yes, the landlord also filed a claim for their shed. We filed a claim for our stuff. The insurance company has been almost impossible to get a straight answer from after almost four months after the accident. Nothing has been resolved or done. What can we do? We tried to find a lawyer but have not been able to find the kind that takes this type of case. My question is what should we do? Is there no limit to the time a claim should be settled? What type of lawyer am I supposed to look for? The traffic lawyers we contacted do personal injury but not property. If its not a traffic lawyer then what kind of lawyer handles this kind of thing? Thanks.
  You have up to 4 years to sue the neighbor over your property damage. There is no time limit in which the neighbor (insurance company) must settle the claim.
  The biggest problem with trying to get an attorney is that there's not much money involved, which causes most contingency fee lawyers to refuse to take the case; there's just not enough money involved to make it worth their time.
  If you're willing to pay an attorney, you would need a negligence lawyer to help you out. You can find an attorney by location and area of practice at www.martindale.com.
  Thank you for a timely and thoughtful response. Due to the fact that no fault insurance is designed to loosen the work load of cases that get filed with the county/state by compensation through insurance...THERE OUGHT TO BE A TIME LIMIT ON THE PROCESS. If there is no time constraints then the insurance company can wait until the parties die due to old age and avoid paying any claims at all. In the mean time the injured parties lose. Who thought of this? I thought government was by the people and for the people.
  That said, is there a way to simply take this to court without a lawyer? We are already victims of hurricane Katrina. We are now further assailed by a system that says, "Make them wait until they go away." No wonder the insurance agents give us the run around every time we call. You should see the mess we have. It is truly horrid.
  Unfortunately, there is no law that requires the insurance company to settle. In fact, the insurance company can deny or refuse your claim.