After a car accident that results in injuries, you may find yourself with a claim that does not go through. If the insurance company denies your car accident claim, you are not necessarily out of options for pursuing compensation.
In a case like this, you may need to gather additional information about what happened in the crash and then re-submit the claim. You also could hire a car accident personal injury attorney to represent your rights in a claim against the insurance company.
Options for Having an Insurance Company Revisit a Claim Decision
When you hire a law firm familiar with personal injury cases to represent you after a car accident claim denial, a lawyer will carefully review the claim and take appropriate action. A legal team like ours can use our experience in past cases to determine what kind of information the insurer needs to see to change the decision.
We may find that we need to do a full investigation of the facts. By interviewing some new witnesses to the accident or by reinterpreting the findings in the police report, we may be able to convince the insurer to make a change.
Moving Toward a Personal Injury Lawsuit
Sometimes it is necessary to file your case in court. Should the case go to trial, we will present the facts as we see them to try to win a legal judgment against the insurer on your behalf. If we file a personal injury lawsuit in civil court, we must meet the two-year deadline, as outlined in Ohio Revised Code Section 2305.10.
Why Is My Insurance Company Denying My Claim?
After an auto accident with injuries that were the fault of another driver, you normally would file a personal injury claim against the other driver’s insurance company.
However, there are a few instances where you would need to file a claim with your own insurance company instead, including:
- The other driver committed a hit-and-run, and they can’t be identified
- The driver who hit you did not have insurance
- The driver did not have enough insurance coverage to pay for your injuries
Regardless of whose insurance you file with, the insurer may still deny your claim for a variety of reasons, including:
They Question Your Version of Events
To receive a successful claim for compensation, you will need to show the other driver caused the crash and your subsequent injuries. Even if you were partly at fault for the collision, you could still receive compensation under Ohio’s comparative negligence law: Ohio Revised Code Section 2315.33.
Keep in mind, the insurance company may deny your claim if it believes you are not being truthful about how the crash occurred. The job of a car accident lawyer is to gather sufficient evidence (such as the police report) to prove that the other party is more at fault for the collision than you are.
They Question Your Injury Severity
If you are seeking an award for pain and suffering related to your injuries, you must be able to show that you are experiencing a reduction in your quality of life due to your crash-related injuries. It’s also possible they don’t believe that your injuries require as much care or long-term recovery as you say. That is why your attorney will use your medical records, bills, and the testimony of your physician to corroborate your injury claims.
Wrong Type of Policy
Your insurer may tell you that you do not have uninsured motorist coverage. If so, you may not be able to collect a personal injury settlement after a hit-and-run crash. It’s also possible that the insurance adjuster for the liable party will claim that their client doesn’t have the appropriate coverage for your accident if they don’t have an accurate understanding of the facts.
Sometimes, the small print of an auto insurance policy can make it difficult to interpret and easy to skew in the insurance company’s favor. For instance, if you don’t have comprehensive coverage, your insurer may deny coverage for something that doesn’t explicitly fall within your policy. You may be unaware of the limitations of your policy because these documents aren’t made to be easily understood.
A law firm that handles these types of cases can review your own insurance policy, the insurance policy of the at-fault driver, and the policy limits to make sure they file the appropriate kind of claim. They will also be able to tell what the limits of each policy are, so they can pursue an appropriate amount for your losses.
You Expect Your Insurer to Take Care of You
When your insurance company denies your claim, it can be a confusing and frustrating time. You paid your insurance premiums on time, yet in some cases, the insurer refuses to help when you need it the most.
Your frustration level may grow if you feel like the insurer is not taking your situation seriously or is not listening to your concerns. Trust that our team of injury attorneys will do everything we can to make your insurer listen to your side of the story.
If the auto insurance company refuses to negotiate, we will do what is legally within our power to compel them to compensate you.
Our Team Works on a Contingency-Fee Basis
When your insurance company denies your claim for damages after a crash with injuries, the team at the Fitch Law Firm LLC is ready to help you appeal this decision. Our personal injury lawyer will work hard to find the facts that show you do deserve a settlement and that the insurer should change its decision.
We work on a contingency-fee basis, which means our clients pay only after we help them win a settlement. Call us today for a free consultation.