Β If you are involved in an accident, determining fault has a lot to do with which auto insurance company pays benefits.
If you are not at fault in a collision, this usually means the other party’s insurance company will pay for your repairs and medical bills as long as the amount is under the driver’s liability limit.
If you are confident that your recent accident was not your fault, don’t be tempted to keep the accident a secret from your insurance company.
Many drivers refrain from using their insurance because they fear their rates will skyrocket due to an incident that was not their fault.
Before you go out and repair the damage yourself, here’s what you should know.
Report the incident to the police and collect as much information as possible, including the other driver’s car insurance information and photos of both vehicles.
Find out what type of system applies in your state.
If the other driver was at fault for the accident, it stands to reason that they will be liable for your medical bills. While this is the case in most states, it is not the case in states with their own no-fault system.
In these states, you can only recover damages from the other person’s insurance company.
There are two types of insurance systems in the United States: fault conditions and non-fault conditions.
In no-fault states, any accident-related medical bills you incur will be covered by your own insurance, regardless of who is at fault.Β
Contact the police and file a report to protect yourself
Not all companies require you to file a police report when filing a claim. Because you don’t have to call the police in a minor accident, you may not need to include a police report with your statement.
Taking this extra step can really protect you during the claim investigation.
If the other party in the accident made the mistake of apologizing for the collision with you, it is easy to determine fault on the spot.
The other party to the accident will later discover that this apology has cemented the fact that they were at fault, allowing them to subsequently change their statement.
Obtain the officer’s information while you are still at the scene
A police report will help you avoid litigation, which can drag on and make the claims process stressful.
Since you likely won’t be able to get the full report at the scene, write down the officer’s badge number and the office where he works so you can provide this information to the insurer.
The adjuster then reviews the report.
Contact your insurance company to begin the claims process
If you and the police agree that you are the innocent party, you can call the other company to file your claim. You should definitely avoid this, as you can easily make a statement that affects the amount of compensation and the speed of claims processing.
You give your insurer all the necessary information and the adjuster will then guide you through the process.
Better yet, the adjuster contacts the other insurer to initiate the claim and exchange explanations so the fault can be officially attributed.
