The Basics of an Accident Claim

Most people if they are lucky are not involved in an accident very often. As a result, most of us do not have the experience to know what should happen and when because we do not have any personal experience to draw from. As a result, an experienced personal injury attorney is going to have a greater advantage then someone who does not do this every day. However, not all cases can afford the expense of an attorney or hiring an attorney may not provide enough additional value where the fee charged by the attorney exceeds what you could have done for yourself without the attorney’s involvement. What follows provides an outline of the claims process if you elect to represent yourself. If you are unsure whether an attorney can add additional value above what they would charge for fees, please contact our office for a free consultation at 602.424.5547 or complete the online contact form.

Despite what you may hear from your friend or neighbor, not all accident claims are the same. Every one is different, and there is no book out there with your name in it that you can refer to that details how much the insurance company ultimately will pay you. There are two parts to every claim: (1) who’s at fault and (2) what are your property and personal injury damages.

If you can not prove the other driver caused the accident, you never get to the second part of the claim process about damages. Generally, police reports are not admissible in court as they are hearsay documents. However, you still have the burden of proof to prove the accident was not your fault. You can do this by hiring an investigator to interview witnesses or expert witnesses. Your version of the accident alone or whether traffic citations were given to the other driver is not usually enough to get you over the liability hurdle. You have to also be careful that you don’t say or do something that let’s the insurance company conclude you are comparatively at fault reducing what you can collect later. And, just because the insurance adjuster may agree initially that they have accepted fault, unless they put it in writing to you that they will not later contest liability, do your investigation anyway so you can prove your claim in the event of litigation. An oral acceptance of liability by the adjuster is worthless later and legally unenforceable. For additional information about witness statements and proving your claim, please consult our Accident Investigation Resource Center.

After liability is established, you now have the burden of proving up your damages. There are generally two parts to damages: property damage and personal injury.

Property damage claims generally resolve first. The vehicle involved will either be repairable or a total loss. Unfortunately, you don’t get the choice. Whatever is cheaper for the insurance company is the direction the property damage claim will go. A general rule of thumb is if the cost to repair the vehicle exceeds 90% of the value of the vehicle it will be considered a total loss. To understand more about handling property damage claims, please refer to our Property Damage Resource Center.

The next part involves personal injuries someone might have sustained in the accident. Generally, this part of the claim is not resolved until after medical treatment is concluded. Otherwise, how do you know how much your total medical care will cost until the doctor tells you you’re better. The sooner you see your doctor the better. Otherwise, the insurance company will assume you were not hurt from the accident. A gap in time – from the date of the accident until your first appointment – could be detrimental to making a successful claim. Many hospitals, urgent care facilities and primary care doctors are simply not equipped to properly help you get better. They are focused on serving those people who have immediate medical problems and are not set up to provide ongoing, consistent medical care. Even getting an appointment at many primary care doctor offices could take several weeks or a month. This could be extremely detrimental to your claim. To understand more about obtaining and documenting your medical care, please refer to our discussion Obtaining Medical Care and Communication with Your Doctor.

This information is meant to be only a general overview of the claims process and should not be considered legal advice. There are many nuances to each claim and only an experienced accident attorney can fully assess what needs to happen and when. At Pfarr & Rethore we are always happy to review your claim with you to see if we can be helpful to you, and add value to your claim in excess of our fees. For a free consultation, please call 602.424.5547 or complete our online contact form.