The most annoying thing ever is getting the total run around from your car insurance company after you have had the misfortune of having an accident.

If you're really tired of the stalling, procrastination and nitpicking your car insurance company is handing out due to your car accident insurance claim, take a number and stand in line. Next to trying to get good seats for the Super Bowl without paying a fortune, fighting with an insurance company ranks right up there in second place. The good news is that you don't have to put up with it.

There are things you can take into your own hands and get them done, knowing that you have the ultimate option of hiring a highly skilled attorney to get to the bottom of the insurance merry-go-round for you. To get started, make the obligatory phone call to the claims department. You have every reason to expect to get polite service and answers to your questions; after all you pay insurance, which pays that person's salary.

Always start off by asking the person's name and then either record the call or take a good set of notes with complete details about the date and time, etc. If you don't like what you are being told because it seems unreasonable, or you aren't happy with the way the call is handled, make it a point to ask for the name of the supervisor. Once you have completed the call, make the trek to the Post Office and mail all your documentation to the person you talked to, or send it all by email. This is an alternative method of getting your point across if the phone call doesn't produce results.

If the documents and phone call(s) don't make any difference, track down the complaints department if they have one. Do the same thing with the complaints department that you did with the frontline people, including sending in your documents once again. Make sure to also include a copy of your detailed notes and whom you spoke to in this second package.

If all else fails, head for the local insurance department and file a formal complaint. However, having said that, it would make much more sense to hire a highly skilled attorney who is able to handle cases like this and get them settled expeditiously without getting the run around to which you were subjected. While you may ask yourself why a lawyer would get better results, the answer is related to an insurance company preferring to settle quickly and as reasonably as possible without landing in court.