After an accident, many thoughts go through your head. When you start to count all the different things you need to do, from getting your car repaired to curing all of your physical ailments, with the added stress of figuring out how you will cover all of those unexpected costs, it can seem overwhelming.
It’s okay to feel like you are not prepared to deal with an accident because nobody is prepared for the consequences that come after the fact. Luckily, we have learned a few things from our work with accident claims that you can do to make sure you get your life back together.
From our vast combined experience dealing with all kinds of accident claims and almost every auto insurance provider in Florida, we have gathered a list of the most critical steps you should take after getting in an accident.
If you want information on what to do immediately after an accident, click here to read the Six Steps to do Immediately After an Accident.
1. Review Your Insurance Policy
While waiting for liability to be established, your policy might offer coverage that can cover your medical damages beyond the personal injury protection benefits guaranteed by law. Your policy might also cover uninsured or underinsured motorists, a kind of protection compensating you for all the damages the other driver’s insurance is supposed to cover.
Your policy might also have accident forgiveness, a feature some insurers offer that forgives your accident by not raising your rates. Typically after an accident, your riskiness as a driver increases, and your rates should also go up. However, the rates stay the same with accident forgiveness under certain conditions.
You can find a copy of your policy by going onto your insurance provider’s website and logging into your account; it should be under Policy or Policy Details. Additionally, you can call your insurance company and ask for a physical copy using the information on your insurance card.
Insurance policies are rather long and tedious legal documents; they can become confusing to read if you do not know what you are looking for as they have a lot of terms and conditions. Do not worry; you can have one of our insurance experts look at your policy to determine what kind of coverage you have, call now to find out more.
2. Report the Accident to Your Insurance
Your insurance is required to cover the first $10,000.00 in medical damages, lost wages, and services you had to get to continue living life as you had before the accident, such as ride shares, grocery delivery, and house cleaning. Florida is a no-fault state, meaning that your insurance company has to provide these benefits even if you were at fault.
When you talk to your insurance company immediately after an accident, you avoid getting blamed for the accident because you set the record straight from the start. We have seen cases where the victim was denied coverage, even though the other driver was found at fault by the responding officer, simply because the other driver filed the claim before the victim.
To file a claim, you need to call your provider with the following documents and information:
- Insurance card with your policy number
- A detailed account of what happened (try to write it as soon as possible when the information is still fresh).
- Contact form that will be given by the police officer who responded and includes the other driver’s name, insurance info, police report number, and information on the responding officer.
Report the accident to your insurance company so you can start the claims process, but do not admit liability; let the insurance company determine it for themselves. Keeping this in mind, you must tell them what happened in a way that does not make you seem guilty. To avoid compromising yourself, it might be best to file a claim through an attorney; we can connect you to one now.
3. Seek Medical Treatment
Go to the emergency room at your local hospital, make an appointment with your primary healthcare provider, visit an orthopedic specialist, chiropractor, anything as long as you make sure to seek medical attention after an accident. Doing so can be the difference between fully covering your damages and denying them altogether.
Even if you do not have pain, you should see a doctor, as some forms of pain are not easily noticed until a doctor examines you; for example, you may not notice you have knee pain until the doctor examines you and asks you to extend your knee fully. Having a doctor perform a routine physical is a simple way to point out any injuries you had not previously noticed.
Doctors can also refer you to more comprehensive imaging to spot things that don’t even hurt. There are many parts of the body where a hernia does not cause pain. However, hernias are prevalent injuries that people experience following a car accident. With diagnostic imaging like CT-Scans or MRI, these kinds of injuries can be found and treated before they become aggravated.
As Florida is a no-fault state, there are some conditions for you to qualify for your PIP benefits, one of these being that you need to seek medical care within the first 14 days following an accident. Suppose you do not seek treatment within this period. In that case, your PIP benefits can be denied, which can lead to the other insurance company denying your claims and questioning their legitimacy.
4. File a Claim with the Other Driver’s Insurance
The two most common types of coverage the other driver may have that can compensate you for your damages are bodily injury protection and property damage coverage. Body injury protection is meant to cover your medical impairments, and property damage is to pay for the damages to your vehicle.
Most policies do not offer the coverage that covers the named insured’s property damage and any medical-related damages beyond the PIP limits of $10,000.00, meaning that your insurance won’t be paying for most of your damages. Instead, it’s usually the case that the other driver’s insurance company compensates most of your damages.
As with your insurance company, it’s better if the other driver’s insurance company hears your side of the story first. Again it would be best to be careful with how you go about filing your claim as you want to avoid placing liability on yourself; having a lawyer represent you in your communications can help you avoid this mishap.
5. Document All of Your Damages
Take pictures of everything, not just your car but also of personal property in the vehicle damaged due to the accident. This includes clothing, expensive electronics like your cellphone, luxury goods like costly purses, and even groceries.
Keep copies of your medical records, including any emergency treatment you get following the accident, especially if you were transported from the scene in an ambulance. Also, create a personal record of all the pains you have not previously experienced before the accident. This can be as simple as making a journal with short entries briefly describing the pain, date, and time.
With all of your damages and treatment documented, you can help strengthen your claims by having evidence of how severe your injuries and damages were. This documentation can help your doctor provide the necessary care and give a lawyer a foundation to build a case if you choose to get one.
6. Talk to a Lawyer
A lawyer will also ensure that all the information the insurance companies get is airtight, meaning you will not be exposed to liability. They will work to assemble all the information you provide them in a way to maximize your compensation without having to go to court. They even have the power to counter offers below what you deserve, a force that you won’t have when filing a claim on your own.
Most lawyers will help you with the BI claims process. Still, most do not help you to file a claim against your insurance company or for property damage against the other insurance company because the compensation for a lawyer in these kinds of cases is limited. When it comes to PIP, it is covered by the law, so there is nothing to fight about, and in the case of property damage, the limits are usually low, so the fees are low.
Our lawyers will go after your insurance company to ensure you get all of your PIP benefits; they will also put pressure on the other insurance company to make sure they pay all of the property damage limits for your damages without any attorneys fees attached, you deserve to be fully compensated for your injuries, and you should never leave money on the table. We can connect you to accident attorneys; call now.
We Can Help
If these steps seem a bit overwhelming or seem like they do not apply to your particular situation, do not stress; we are ready to answer any questions you may have. Call us now so we can discuss your accident further and give you the answers you need.