
No Fault Insurance Claim Process – GEICO (“Government Employees Insurance Corporation”) is the second largest consumer auto insurance company with over 15 million insured drivers. This post provides top insider secrets on how to effectively deal with GEICO for accident claims and examines the settlement amounts you can expect in GEICO claims.
If you are handling an accident claim with GEICO, your primary contact will be a GEICO claims adjuster. A claims adjuster is the GEICO representative responsible for processing and administering your claim.
No Fault Insurance Claim Process
When you file a GEICO claim, one of the primary duties of the adjuster is to investigate the facts of your claim. This means you will spend a lot of time talking to GEICO adjusters and answering questions about the accident. Adjusters are often very personable and it may even seem like they are trying to help you or be on your side.
What Is No Fault Insurance? Guide For 2023
Our top insider tip when dealing with a GEICO adjuster is to be careful what you say to the adjuster about the accident. The best version of caution would be to say nothing unless required by law or contract to make a statement.
No matter how friendly they may seem when you talk to them, the claimant is looking out for GEICO, not you. They are looking for ways to deny your claim or limit the amount GEICO will pay for your claim. Anything you say to them can potentially be used against you.
If you want to process your claim, you must provide the GEICO adjuster with certain basic facts about yourself and the accident. You can’t simply refuse to talk to them (unless you hire a lawyer to handle your claim). Other than the basic facts of your claim, however, you should avoid telling the adjuster anything else. There are certain topics you should NEVER discuss with the GEICO adjuster, including:
Your personal injury lawyer can cover all of these topics in detail and provide evidence to support them later in the claims process. If you discuss these topics with the GEICO adjuster beforehand, it may come back to bite you later.
Do You Have To Go To Court For A Car Accident?
For example, let’s say you tell the GEICO adjuster you only missed a few days of work, but at your next doctor’s visit you find out you need surgery and will miss two months of work. The GEICO adjuster will try to limit your claim to the 5 days you originally told them.
At some point early in the claims process, GEICO will ask you to provide a public statement and answer questions that are videotaped or audiotaped. Applicants often assume this is an obligation and accept it with little thought. However, the truth is that creditors have no legal obligation to file a recorded statement.
Giving a recorded statement can only harm your claim and not benefit you. Not one bite. Agreeing to file a recorded statement about the accident just gives GEICO ammunition they will use against you. The adjuster will select parts of your recorded statement and cite them as “evidence” to deny or reduce your claim.
GEICO asserts that adjusters are often very aggressive in their pursuit of a recorded statement. They may require you to have a legal obligation to provide a recorded statement. This is absolutely NOT true if GEICO is not your own insurance company (and it varies by state in that case). Now they won’t tell you specifically that it’s mandatory. But they might imply it.
Health Insurance Claim Form
There is no law (in any state) that requires a claimant in a car accident to file a recorded statement unless the case is in litigation (ie own insurance company.
As part of the GEICO claim process, you will be asked to provide copies of all medical bills related to injuries sustained in the accident. The reason for this is that you are legally entitled to compensation for the medical expenses of the accident. Most people honestly assume that if they submit two months of medical bills and the charges on the bills add up to $5,000, GEICO will simply reimburse them for the full $5,000.
This is not what happens. GEICO (along with many other insurance companies) will not simply agree to cover the bill amount on the medical bill. In fact, they will usually ignore the amount charged by the provider and only agree to cover what they consider to be the “usual and customary charges” for the service.
What this means is that not only will GEICO dispute the amount the doctor charged for the treatment, but they will also question whether the treatment was medically necessary. For example, let’s say you submit medical bills for 10 physical therapy sessions at a cost of $500 per session. GEICO may come back and say that you only need 6 cycles and that they will only cover the “standard fee” of $250 per cycle.
How To File A Health Insurance Claim Form
Many claimants assume that there is nothing they can really do about it and end up accepting GEICO’s reduced offer for medical expenses. However, the reality is that GEICO does not have the right to force this on you. If you hire a personal injury attorney and take your claim to court, you can force GEICO to cover the full amount of your actual medical expenses.
Many people end up underestimating their accident claims because they simply add up their medical bills and the auto repair bill and assume that is the total amount of the claim. If you do this, you are significantly understating your claim because you are legally entitled to more than just medical expenses and property damage.
When you are injured in a car accident, you are legally entitled to compensation for the following types of damages:
If you leave any of these compensation elements out of your original claim or claim, don’t expect GEICO’s claims adjuster to mention anything. If you are handling your own claim, the adjuster will likely expect you to waive certain things such as future medical expenses or pain and suffering.
California Car Accident Settlement Guide & Process
GEICO adjusters are notorious for making initial settlement offers on almost all accident claims. The first settlement offer you receive from a GEICO adjuster is usually very low, sometimes half of the actual value of the claim. Adjusters realize that some creditors are desperate to get their claims paid as quickly as possible. They dangle low initial settlement offers like bait in the hope that a certain percentage of creditors will go for it.
If you accept GEICO’s first offer to settle your claim, you will be leaving money on the table. The only way to get anything close to full and fair value from GEICO in a claim settlement is to reject their original offer and threaten them with lawsuits. After the first settlement offer is rejected, GEICO always comes back with a second settlement offer that is significantly higher.
The only effective way to force GEICO to make a fair settlement offer on your claim is to file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver. Filing a lawsuit against the driver’s insurance company in a car accident case always increases the pressure on the adjuster. However, this is especially true when dealing with GEICO’s accident claim adjuster.
If you reject GEICO’s first settlement offer and file a lawsuit against the insured driver, the GEICO adjuster will quickly change its position on the claim. The case is usually reassigned to a new GEICO claims adjuster. The new adjuster almost always comes in and makes another, slightly better settlement offer on your claim. If you continue to file a lawsuit and move closer to trial, you can expect an even better settlement offer.
At Fault Vs No Fault Accident Claims In Your State
Below are summaries of recent verdicts and reported settlements in accident cases where GEICO was one of the insurance companies involved in the case or a direct defendant.
Does this tell you the settlement amount you should expect from GEICO for your case? Of course not. Learn about what insurance coverage is and how it can help you recover from a motor vehicle accident by covering your lost wages.
According to New York State law, the minimum coverage for an insurance policy that you can carry that will allow you to register your car and get license plates includes what is called “No-Fault” coverage. This type of coverage is also called Personal Injury Protection (PIP), and is intended to pay medical bills and lost wages.
No-Fault coverage covers not only lost income if you are incapacitated and medical expenses, but also additional compensation for necessary expenses for drivers, passengers or pedestrians injured by your car. This may include transport to and from the doctor in case of personal injury. This type of coverage does not include
Timeline For A Personal Injury Case
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