The rules that pertain to those injured men and women that are submitting a personal injury claim, following involvement in a car accident, differ from state to state.
Some states respect the rules that have long offered guidance, under the traditional fault principle.
According to those rules, the insurance company of the at-fault driver must cover the cost of any claim. Before making a payment, the insurance company that has received the claim always seeks proof of negligence on the part of its policyholder. The policyholder is the defendant, the person that, allegedly, has been responsible for triggering the injury-causing accident.
To prove negligence, the Personal Injury Lawyer in Richmond Hill knows that injured victim must show that the defendant had breached a recognized duty, and that the same breach had caused the reported injury.Still, even with proof of negligence, the amount of compensation owed to the injured party could get lowered, if there were any evidence of shared fault.
Some states have a no-fault insurance system.
In those states, any registered vehicle must be covered by a no-fault insurance policy. In the event of an accident, the driver’s own insurance must cover the cost of the claim, regardless of who has been named at-fault. The cost would include both the medical expenses and the lost wages.
The injured party cannot seek money for pain and suffering, unless the medical expenses were to rise to a certain level, a threshold established by the state. If the medical expenses were to rise to that level, then the injured party would have the right to sue the at-fault driver.
Someone that has submitted a claim within a state with a no-fault system must cooperate with the insurance company that has the duty of covering the cost of the claim’s expenses. In order to seek money for damage to a vehicle that was involved in the named accident, the owner of that same vehicle must rely on a purchased option, one that has guaranteed collision coverage.
The role of the uninsured motorist option
Insurance companies in every state are supposed to provide their customers with the chance to purchase that particular option. A policy that has such an option function like the insurance policy in a no-fault state.
So, if the insured driver were to be hit by an uninsured motorist, then the same driver’s insurance would have to cover the cost of the medical expenses and the lost wages. The policyholder could sue the responsible driver, if the medical expenses were to exceed a given threshold.
Similar to an at-fault system, the driver’s collision coverage would need to be the source of any funds that were needed for repairing the vehicle damage caused by the uninsured motorist.