
Insurance Payout For Car Accident – It can be difficult to know what to do immediately after you are involved in a traffic accident. Suddenly you’re faced with new problems, from seeking a doctor to dealing with the police. One of the steps you shouldn’t forget – or delay – is filing an insurance claim after your car accident. The sooner you start, the sooner you get resolution and can move on with your life.
Here you can learn how to report an accident to an insurance company, what the Oklahoma auto insurance claims process involves, and what to do if insurance denies your claim.
Insurance Payout For Car Accident
If you, any passengers, and your vehicle are at risk and no one needs immediate medical attention, it’s best to start filing your auto insurance claim. In Oklahoma, the at-fault driver and their insurer are responsible for damages. But even if you are not at fault, you should contact your own insurance company to alert them to the situation.
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Reporting a car accident to your insurance company doesn’t start with a phone call, though. You need to gather important information first. The steps to report an accident to insurance are as follows:
How long you have after a car accident to file a claim with your insurance carrier depends on the carrier and your specific policy. That said, any insurance company is going to require you to report an accident as soon as possible, or at least within a reasonable amount of time. You should interpret that as a few days, maybe a week or two, depending on your situation.
It is important not to delay. Remember: Insurance companies make their money by limiting payouts. Don’t give them any excuses to deny your claim.
There are some situations where you may not want to file a car insurance claim. If you were in a one-car accident, no one was hurt, you didn’t damage other people’s property, and the damage to your own vehicle would cost less than the deductible on your auto insurance, you may not want to report it. Using your auto insurance could trigger an increase in your monthly premiums. However, if your car accident does not fit into this very narrow category, you should call your insurer immediately.
Average Payout For Car Accident Claims In The U.s
You do not need to give a recorded statement to any insurance company, no matter what they may require. It may not seem unusual, but insurers can use these recordings to seek ways to deny or limit car accident insurance settlements. If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from insurance and asking to record your statement, politely say no and contact a car accident attorney immediately.
It is important to remember that the other driver’s insurance company is only interested in protecting their customers and limiting payments to you. Your first call should be to your own insurance company, whose job it is to protect your interests. The next call you make should be to an attorney who can advocate for your rights during the auto insurance claim process. Whatever you do, don’t agree to be listed or sign anything the other driver’s insurance sends you before you talk to a car accident attorney.
The entire car insurance claim process, from car accident to settlement (and getting back on the road), will vary depending on your situation, but the following is a basic sequence of events:
There is no guarantee that the insurer will honor your claim. Several reasons why an insurance claim can be rejected:
Filing An Insurance Claim After An Accident
If an insurance company denies your car accident claim, your best bet is to contact an attorney who can represent your case on your behalf. And the surest way to help your cause is to collect and retain as much information about the accident as you can. This is why collecting evidence at the scene of an accident is so important. For example, if the other driver’s insurer denies that their policyholder is at fault, the photos you took or the statements you collected right after the accident could prove you right—even if you have to file a lawsuit.
Sometimes an insurance company is in bad faith. That’s when they unfairly deny or limit coverage of a legitimate claim, often simply because they can. Bad faith practices can include stagnation, understatement, not explaining benefits, and even abuse. Insurance companies know that many people do not have the resources to wait for settlements or fight in court. The only way to get fair treatment in these situations is by enlisting the help of an experienced law firm to look after the insurer’s legal team.
Depending on the type of auto insurance you have and how good it is, you may be able to receive compensation for medical bills, car repair costs, towing costs, rental car fees and even lost wages. Damages that cannot be claimed by insurance can be recovered from the at-fault driver in a lawsuit.
Moving on after an accident is hard enough without having to deal with insurance companies. Even if you’ve never missed an insurance premium, obeyed the law, and followed all the rules, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a fair car accident insurance settlement. If you have been involved in a car accident in Oklahoma, call the experienced legal team at McIntyre Law. We will fight to make sure you get the compensation you deserve. Every car accident claim is different, but to find out how much you’re worth, it helps to understand how a claim’s value is calculated. “Value” in this sense simply means the total dollar value you’re more likely to walk away with. Let’s look at the different techniques that lawyers and insurance companies use to come up with a dollar figure, then apply these techniques to some specific examples.
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In general, injuries that “seem” more serious will be given more weight, because juries are more responsive to such injuries. Even if the case never goes to trial, both sides wonder how a jury would react if nothing could be worked out in negotiations and the jury was the ultimate arbiter. That means your injury could result in a higher settlement if it:
Beyond that, both sides will differ in how they estimate the dollar cost of your injury. Both will look at your actual medical expenses plus “pain and suffering,” but your attorney and the insurance company will use different methods to calculate the final figure.
Your attorney will calculate the cost of your injury in part based on how it affected your life. This can include a number of factors, such as whether the injury interferes with your normal daily life, whether you will continue to suffer from pain in the future, whether it affects your ability to work and whether there is any emotional distress that is triggered . with your injuries.
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The insurance company, on the other hand, will likely calculate the value of your settlement based on an algorithm. They will enter the type of injury you have, and various factors related to it, and have a computer generate a number based on other similar cases.
Not surprisingly, the insurance company’s number is often much lower than your attorney’s number. This is why negotiation makes such a big difference in a car accident claim and why an experienced attorney can make such a big difference in how much you win in the end.
Based on the formulas above, we can give a general range for how much some common car accident injuries could earn in Georgia:
The more serious the injury, the more the answer depends on getting a professional to negotiate your claim. For very minor injuries, it may only cost $3,000 or so to have a lawyer; for broken bones or disability, a lawyer could help you get tens of thousands more than you would on your own.
How To Settle A Car Accident Claim
If you are seeking compensation after being injured in a car accident, call an Atlanta car accident attorney at John Foy & Associates who is standing by and ready to help. Simply fill out the form to the right or call us at 404-400-4000 for a FREE consultation today. We are excited to announce that we are moving St. Louis office to a new location in The Hill neighborhood. Starting October 27th, you can find us at our new address: 4900 Daggett Ave. 63110.
This page has been written, edited and reviewed by a team of songwriters according to our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This site was endorsed by founding partner, Terry Crouppen, who has more than 40 years of legal experience as a personal injury attorney. Our last modified date shows when this page was last viewed.
The average settlement amount for a car accident is approximately $25,446.84. This number may be high compared to US national averages because the data includes more cars
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