<prompt> Human: Ill try to stay vague for anonymity.I was in my little econo-box at a stoplight, and got rocked by a fancy luxury SUV. I got sent into the car in front of me. I had minimal damage on my front bumper from hitting the car in front of me I hit his trailer hitch - no damage to his car. My rear end was very smashed, and so was luxury SUVs front end. I got pictures of everything, phone numbers for everyone, and a picture of the at-fault drivers ID. I also have a police report. He said his parents just switched insurance so he didnt have a card on him. This is when I knew this was going to be a pain in the ass. It almost totaled my car - I needed like 4.5k of work. I paid my 1k deductible and was screwed out of my car for two weeks while they rebuilt the entire back half of the body. I ran the numbers afterward and I did net better off overall by having the 1k deductible vs. the 500, because this is the difference in deductible was overmatched by the premium savings. Anyway, the insurance says they will try to recover their outlay and my deductible from the guys insurance. I call in a few times, and hear that the guy and his parents are not returning calls and ignoring my insurance company. I found out about three months after the accident that the guy killed himself about a week before I discovered it - he was alive for almost three months after he hit me. I was shocked and felt bad for his family, for sure. I informed the insurance company, and they said they would try to go after his estate. Last week I received a letter saying that they were unable to recover anything and that since they were no longer pursuing it that I got back my rights to sue. Suing a dead guy seems like bad karma, and I am not really interested in having any part in adding to his familys grief in any way. I would, however, like my deductible back, because I was sitting at a stop light and got absolutely rocked by a crappy driver who was most likely on his cell phone. Is there any middle ground here? Anyone who I can call to see if he actually did have car insurance? Any recourse with my own insurance to tell them to try harder, or something? Any way to find out what his estate was like I know he made good money?I so feel shitty for asking, but I would like to know of any reasonable steps to take to try to recover my deductible without being a completely insensitive jerk. Edit:I appreciate all of your feedback, for sure. I was surprised at the relative lack of negative comments. To address some of the common themes in the replies:This is in the USA. Originally we me and my ins. co did try to go through his insurance, but were unable to discover any because we were getting stonewalled. I needed the car, so I got it repaired, and paid my 1k deductible to the repair shop. The insurance company paid the remaining 3.5k or whatever it was. I do have uninsured and underinsured coverage, but it only covers medical costs, not my deductible for my own property. A few people said that karma doesnt exist - I dont believe in karma, just that on the grand scheme of things trying to extract a thousand bucks out of a young guys estate, while his family is still dealing with it, acutely, seems like it doesnt balance out. Like, the good that I would get out of getting my money back might not be worth the bad that people would go through for that. Me eating the loss is a small negative for me, but me going after it in a shitty way would be a larger net negative overall. Some people seem to think that a nice letter to his parents would be the least callous, but, if I were to pursue it, my inclination would be the opposite: go through the estate and leave his family out of it as much as possible. If his estate was nothing, then I would not pursue it any further. I still havent decided. I will probably try to get my insurance to press it further.I talked to my insurance, and apparently he owned the car but was uninsured. It was a late model, new car, worth at least 4-5x what mine was when I was hit. My insurance dropped their pursuit of the money theirs and mine when they found out he was dead. I do not know whether or not that was appropriate for them to do - they originally said their collections agency was going to pursue the claim through the estate, so now I am getting mixed messages. There seems to have been an undue delay between them deciding to drop it and notifying me of that. I dont know what kind of leverage, if any short of switching providers, I have for getting the insurance company to pursue this small sum if they dont want to - like if they are willing to eat their loss, then they really dont care about my deductible. I would like to know what my insurance companys responsibilities are here, but it might be buried in a contract somewhere. I have no special allegiance with this company, and I have definitely switched insurance for a lot less, but it is still unclear to me what, if anything, they should have done that they didnt. I think that since they initially pursued the money they paid out for my car that my right to go after my 1k was subrogated, and now that they are not pursuing their money anymore I regain my right to go after the 1k personally. I dont know how much responsibility they actually have here - they are owed 3.5k by the at-fault guy, and I am separately owed 1k. As I understand it, my insurance doesnt owe me anything - they paid for most of the repairs already other than keeping me in the loop and informed, which they didnt do, and notwithstanding the thousands of dollars of premiums Ive paid them over the last few years. There are a lot of replies I havent gotten a chance to read but I will be looking through them as I get a chance. I think I will write a letter to my insurance asking for a real breakdown of what was done and when, and what their policies are at each step along the way. Something is a bit fishy there, as this was lost in the sauce for a while.  <response>: Doesnt matter where they get the money from- thats their problem. The deal is you pay your premium and they pay the previously agreed amount. Subrogation is just to cover their ass after they pay out.otherwise theyre just a middle man and serve no purpose.File it with your state insurance commissioner and find a less shitty insurance company. From- your friendly licensed insurance agent. EDIT: For clarity your insurance company pays you and then they get their money back either through him, his insurance company or his assets. Bust their balls about it for sure and threaten to go over their heads to theur governing bodies 