When Rosemarie Ambrozic was assigned as the new adjuster my son was hopeful that everything would be straightened out.  He sent her a long letter about the problems he was having getting the proper settlement on his car.  He also told her he was unable to go back to work because the medical bills weren't being paid.  He also told her verbally when she called him. 

 In his letter he sent more copies of all the medical bills as well as all other documentation for things for which they hadn't reimbursed him. Then, after telling her all about his injury in a phone conversation, my son got a letter from Rosemarie asking him about his injuries. 

She wanted:  a diagnosis (wow!  my son is a doctor!), estimated date of release from treatment, copies of medical bills (which they already had), and his current status of injuries.  The letter started out by saying, "This letter serves as a status on this claim."  She never gave him any status on his claim, she wanted a status on his injury which was the same as it was two days prior when he spoke with her on the phone.

She also wanted to know why, if he was right-handed, a broken left hand would stop him from doing his job as a plumber!  Good grief!  With the cast on his hand he couldn't even grip the steering wheel to get to a job location!  With minimal strength in his hand after the cast came off he couldn't grip what needed to be gripped.  He still thought his hand was broken!  (So did the physical therapist when my son finally was able to afford to visit one.)

So, he sent her another letter with as much information as he could muster.  He told her again that he needed to be rehabbed and would like a second opinion as the clicking noise that the doctor had told him was the broken bone, was still clicking.

Again, she didn't tell him his medical bills wouldn't be paid.  What she did tell him was that they weren't responsible for paying his medical bills.  WHAT???  That's what bodily injury liability pays for.... injuries sustained in an accident for which you are liable!  She told him that they would "comp" him for his medical bills!  So, she was saying they were going to do him a favor and pay the medical bills?  Oh my my my!

In the meantime my son contacted the California Department of Insurance, Claims Division, (as mentioned in the property damage section above) and sent a letter to the CEO of Coast National.  Steve Tarleton, the regional V.P., who was told to call my son by the CEO, was only authorized to help with the property damage portion.  So, the guy at the Department of Insurance told my son to send a demand letter to Coast National with another set of medical bills and other expenditures demanding they pay them within fifteen days.  It didn't work.  It was then four months after the accident.

Keep in mind, my son wanted to go back to work.  He was going through mental ups and downs because all he could do was wait for the medical bills to be paid.  We didn't have enough money to pay them.  He had begged and he had demanded and nothing had happened.  He had already been told by Rosemarie that the bills would be paid.  She had told him that he would have money to buy Christmas presents.  The fifteen day demand letter went out on December 30, 2004.  My son had NOT received any money like she had told him!  Lies lies LIES!

Then, on January 18, 2005 Rosemarie told my son she would pay the medical bills that same day.  That was the day she had hung up on him (see the property damage story for the details on that).  Before she had hung up she told him that she couldn't pay the medical bills because she hadn't received the medical records from the medical center yet (four months later). 

Then, she called him back and said she would pay them that day.  So, they can't pay them AND then they can pay them?  Which one is it?

She didn't pay them that day.  It wasn't until my son spoke with the regional vice president on 2/4/05 that he was FINALLY told they were NOT going to pay the medical bills.  The V.P. told my son that they would only pay my son one check which would include the amounts owed to any doctors.  (Funny, when they finally did give him a check for bodily injury, it included property damage items they hadn't paid yet.) So I cashed in my life insurance policy to pay for my son's medical bills and to enable him to go to physical therapy. 

My son had not been told for five months that his bills would not be paid.  Every day that went by he had been anticipating that the bills would be paid so he could get physical therapy and get on with his life.  The adjusters knew that, too, and never told him he was waiting in vain!

He got released from physical therapy on February 28, 2005.  Had Coast National paid his medical bills when they were due my son could have begun his physical therapy the end of September.  He probably would have been done and back to work by the middle of October!  Instead, my son sat around waiting and waiting and waiting, thinking they were going to pay them.  They led him to believe that they would so he waited.

 When he was ready to settle they tried to tell him: that he had already had a cast on his hand from a previous accident at the time of this accident!  WHAT?  That's crazy!  He wasn't in a previous accident and never had hurt his left hand before August, when he got rear-ended! 

Rosemarie, the adjuster, had called my son's employer in March and had him pull employment records from the month before the accident.  So, the employer, thinking she would only have him pull records for the time of the accident saw my son had taken two days off the month before and he assumed that was the date of the accident.  Rosemarie then jumped on what he said and is now saying my son was in another accident the month before and broke his hand in it!  Holy moley!  Trickery!

 Do you think that the doctor who treated my son the day of the accident would have noticed a cast already on my son's hand?  I wonder if he wrapped the soft cast over the imaginary "old cast".  Do you think the x-rays would have shown a previous break?  Do you think?!?  Good grief!

 Ms. Rosemarie also told him:
it didn't matter that my son's boss told them there was no work for a man with one bad hand.  She said  the only thing that matters is what the doctor said.  If the doctor says go back to work, then you go back to work even if your boss says GO HOME.

As a matter of fact, my son DID try to go back to work the day after the accident!  He drove for them for four days wearing his soft cast.  Then, when he got his hard cast he couldn't even drive so they sent him home.

My son was not asking for one single penny more than he is owed.  He was on his way to work when he was rear-ended.  My son is the VICTIM in this whole thing!  He was treated like he was a criminal! They were fighting having to pay his loss of wages.  They offered him 9% of his lost earnings!  NINE PERCENT!  Had they paid his medical bills in the first place he would have probably only been off of work 11 weeks instead of 27!  So, how does it become my son's fault?  Oh, yes, that's right.  They "aren't responsible for paying his medical bills".  Well, that's what they said.  Maybe my son should have said, "Oh, silly me.  I'm sorry for bothering you.  Never mind."  Do you think???

 My son  requested not to have to deal with Rosemarie, his adjuster, any more.  Another woman there, Dana Chase, told him that he had to deal with Rosemarie even though she had sent him a letter addressed to "Miss" instead of "Mr." and spelled my son's last name wrong.  She had spoken to him on the phone many times and knew he was a man. 

Like I said before, it is as if she has never opened his file each time he had dealings with her.  She couldn't even remember if he was a man or a woman! Over and over he had had to tell her what date the accident happened.  Over and over he had to tell her what was wrong with his hand.  Over and over he had to tell her how much the medical bills were and what they were for. 

She even tried to tell him she didn't have medical records that my son sent her twice (once by certified/return receipt mail) and that she had already reviewed with him at least three times on the phone!  On more than one occasion she told him she was paying his medical bills which was a total out-and-out lie.

My son sent in a settlement demand asking for actual expenses incurred.  Those expenses included:  mileage to and from doctors, mileage to and from the various places he had to go to prove the value of his car, the cost of all envelopes, the cost of copies (after the first couple of letters he began sending copies to the insured, to the CEO of Coast National, to the Dept. of Insurance, and wherever else he thought might help), the cost of all postage, any long distance phone calls, and any other miscellaneous expenses no matter how small.  They were broken down into property damage and bodily injury expenses.
(Here's a sample chart)
The mileage was determined on medical mileage as allowed by the IRS.

All of a sudden, Dana let my son know that Rosemarie no longer worked for them and she was his new claims adjuster, the third one he had in nine months!

OK, anyone want to join this guy:

Tony K (09/15/2008)
My PARKED car was totaled by a driver who has Coast National - part of Bristol.
I won in small claims court and they will not pay.
I am interested in finding as many people as possible to join me in a class action lawsuit.
If you are interested in joining me - email me at akingsley22@hotmail.com