Originally Posted by jmastron

My first question is whether this was an "official company business" or personal "leisure" rental, both when reserved and what it actually was. That really determines what the next steps are here. At my company for business rentals there is liability and loss coverage; we are allowed to use the corporate rate for personal rentals but there is no LDW or liability coverage.

1) If it was an offficial business rental then I agree with others that you punt it to the company to handle; they are on the hook either way.

2) If it was a personal rental and LDW is included for free, then continue fighting Hertz using the original reservation; if the agent mistakenly changed your rate to something else (but if they just changed it from business to leisure and that dropped the LDW then see below).

3) If it was a personal rental and turns out no LDW is included, then you really have no choice but to pay, and then sue the other driver since the claim against their insurance was denied. And in the future you really need to have at least liability coverage when you rent -- being considered at fault in an injury crash could make this $5K bill pale in comparison. Imagine if you were held responsible for someone's $500K hospital bill (from a personal example of an injury requiring multiple surgeries)

Fault in an accident isn't always as clear-cut as either party wants to believe, especially without witnesses or pictures.