If you have been involved in a car accident, unless it was very minor, you will inevitably be making a claim with an insurance company, either yours if you are claiming on your own policy, or someone else’s if you are making a personal injury claim. If the insurer makes an offer, should you accept it outright, or pursue a better offer? As there are so many variables involved in a car accident, who was at fault, what the injuries were, if any, whether there was damage to your car, or any other property, it’s hard to give a single, easy answer without looking at the accident in more detail and the policies involved.
What can be said is that all insurance companies must answer to their own shareholders as a priority and are unlikely to make a reasonable offer unless the evidence given to them convinces them that they have no alternative. The more serious the accident, the more important it is to get all the facts right so that your claim is dealt with as fairly as possible. In doubt about Massachusetts law, and your legal options relating to a claim, it is advisable to talk to a car accident lawyer before you actually accept an offer which has been made already.
Massachusetts compulsory car insurance
In Massachusetts, like any other U.S. state, there are compulsory insurance policies you must have, as well as various other options you can purchase, which provide greater security in the event of an accident.
Every registered car owner must have four different compulsory insurance policies. These are:
- Personal Injury Protection (PIP);
- Bodily Injury to Others;
- Uninsured Auto Insurance;
- Property Damage.
PIP insurance means that if you or anyone who you allowed to drive your car are injured in a car accident you must claim damages from your own insurer as long as the total amount of medical treatment costs and 75% of lost wages is less than $8,000. Massachusetts no-fault law means that the insurer must pay out the amount whether you or another driver was at fault. $8,000 isn’t very much, so if the injuries were more serious and you have proof that the other driver was at fault, you will be able to file a personal injury claim with the other driver’s insurer. This is where you are most likely to have an inadequate offer from that insurer or stubborn refusal to admit fault.
Uninsured auto insurance is there to protect you and any other occupants of your car from the consequences of a car accident caused by an uninsured or hit and run driver. You are expected to purchase a minimum of $25,000 per person or $50,000 in total. Your claim would be with your own insurer if the accident was caused by an uninsured or hit and run driver.
Bodily injury to others is insurance you must purchase in the event that you cause an accident and injuries to people in another vehicle. Insurance is a minimum of $25,000 per person and $50,000 for more than one injured.
Property damage insurance is insurance for when you have caused damage to another driver’s property. A minimum of $30,000 must be purchased.
When does an insurance company try and offer an unsatisfactory settlement?
Note that you are only going to have an initial unsatisfactory offer of compensation if you are injured within your PIP maximum, or if you were injured by an uninsured or hit and run driver and the damages were within the limits given above. You make your claim with your own insurer and must provide sufficient evidence to justify what amount you are claiming. There will be more about this later.
If you are more seriously injured and your PIP insurance will not cover it, then you may have the chance to file a claim with the at-fault driver’s own insurer. This is called a personal injury claim. Because it will be for a substantial amount, this is when you are most likely to get an unsatisfactory initial response from the insurer who represents their client.
In Massachusetts, there is a 3 year statute of limitations for personal injury claims. This means that you can still file your claim with the relevant insurer up to 3 years from the date of the accident. In most cases, 3 years is rather too long, but the important thing is that the law gives you plenty of time to get yourself treated and ensures you have all the costs, medical, short and long term, property damage and non-economic costs, such as extra amounts for emotional and psychological suffering, worked out with supporting evidence.
A personal injury attorney can help you with such a claim, and in most cases, this will be on a contingency fee basis, so that there will be no upfront fees and the attorney only bills you if the claim is won in your favor.
Why you shouldn’t accept an insurance company’s initial offer too soon
If you are going to file a personal injury claim because the cost of medical treatment and lost income due to treatment exceeds what you can claim back from your PIP cover, you may find that the at-fault driver’s insurer makes a quick offer. The problem with this is that too often the real cost of treatment only reveals itself after some time. You may even have long term treatment as well as lost income costs which take time to calculate. You should only accept a claim which realistically covers your real losses. The best time for this is when your doctor thinks that your condition has stabilized and is unlikely to deteriorate and is able to provide a realistic idea of how long it will take for you to fully recover.
The advice given above – take time to prepare the claim when you are sure about the real long term cost of injuries – also applies to claims you make with your own insurer, such as for PIP or uninsured / hit and run claims. Remember that insurance companies’ main loyalties lie with their own shareholders and not with the clients they provide insurance cover for so will try and minimize any claim amount as much as possible if they can get away with it.
Take note of Massachusetts comparative fault laws
The other issue with insurance companies is when they claim that the accident you were involved in was not just the fault of their own client. In Massachusetts, personal injury law is subject to comparative fault law. This means that you can legally claim damages from another driver if the percentage fault due to you was less than 50%. In some cases, the other driver’s insurer may try and allege that you were at fault, not their client, or that you were at least partly at fault, so can only receive a percentage of the amount you have claimed.
The best advice is to talk to a personal injury attorney about the accident and how you should prepare your claim. Much depends on the amount of evidence you can supply which justifies your claim. Evidence includes photos taken at the scene of the accident, eyewitness statements from anyone who was close by at the scene of the accident, police accident reports and recordings recovered from traffic cameras located near the scene of the accident.