Drunk driver hit my parked car, now his insurance wants to split the payout with someone else — is that legal??

The split-payout thing happened to me too and I was FLOORED when the adjuster explained it. Basically if the at-fault driver doesn't have enough coverage, everyone who got damaged has to share whatever is there. It's infuriating but unfortunately real. I ended up finding a personal injury attorney who also handled property damage on the side — took some digging but they exist. Don't give up calling around.

Three months and multiple different stories from the adjuster? That's not confusion, that's a strategy. They run out the clock hoping you'll just accept whatever crumbs they offer. Stop being nice on those calls. Start everything in writing — email only — so there's a paper trail. And honestly, the second you mention you're talking to a lawyer, the whole tone changes.

So the split you're describing is called pro-rata allocation when a policy limit isn't enough to cover all claimants. It's real and adjusters are trained to present it like it's totally normal and fair — and it IS legal — but that doesn't mean you're stuck accepting their math on what your car is worth. The valuation they use for your vehicle is absolutely negotiable. Get your own comparable listings and push back in writing. That's where you can actually recover some ground.

For what it's worth, the type of attorney you're probably looking for is a personal injury attorney who handles property damage claims, sometimes called PI/PD attorneys. Some PI firms won't touch cases without bodily injury because the fees are lower, but there are firms that specialize in total-loss and property damage disputes. You can also look into whether your state allows you to recover attorney fees in cases against an insurer acting in bad faith — three months of runaround might actually qualify.

Not legal advice, but a couple of things worth knowing: the at-fault driver's personal assets could potentially be pursued beyond his insurance limits if the coverage genuinely doesn't make you whole — that's a direct lawsuit against the individual. Whether that's worth it depends on what the driver actually has. Second, your state may have an insurance commissioner's office where you can file a complaint about unreasonable delays. Sometimes just filing that complaint speeds things up significantly.

Not my area of expertise at all, but I just want to say — three months of this kind of stress takes a real toll. Even if there's no physical injury, the anxiety of dealing with insurance limbo is exhausting. Don't let the process wear you down into accepting less than you deserve just to make it stop. You deserve a resolution that actually covers your loss.

Here's the short version: get at least three independent appraisals of your vehicle's value, don't sign anything the insurance company sends you, and call every PI attorney you can find until one agrees to at least a free consultation. Some won't take it, but some will. The ones who do contingency work on property damage are out there — they're just harder to find because they're picky about cases. Your situation sounds solid enough that someone will want it.