Auto insurance litigation can be a painstakingly long and expensive process. And it is better if one is prepared beforehand and knows what exactly must be done prior to meeting with an accident.
So what exactly must you do after an accident?
The first thing to do obviously is going to be to check whether everybody is fine. Make sure that no body needs immediate emergency care. If they do, then you must call the emergency services immediately.
And once you have extricated all the people from within the wreck, move away from the vehicle. But do stay within visual range. If it is a freeway or any other high speed corridor, try alerting the other drivers to the peril by switching on your flash lights or by putting a couple of flares in front of the wreck.
But before extricating anyone, make sure that you are not going to be further complicating their wounds. An accident can be a tricky situation and you don’t want to be the cause of someone’s permanent misery.
After moving away from the vehicle, place a call to the police. And if you want to claim money from your insurance company, then call your company too. Once the police arrive on the scene, ask them to register a complaint. It is important that an officer make note of the damages incurred by each party. And also make sure there are other witnesses who can give a first person account of what exactly happened.
And make sure you do not talk to anyone else at the scene of the accident. It is common practice and even human nature to want to talk about what just happened. But make sure you refrain from doing so. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in the court of law.
Take down the contact details of the other party and also the contact number of his auto insurance company. If the other party accepts fault immediately, or you want to do sol then there will be no problem. But if this is not the case, then you will have to take it to court. Also take down his VIN or vehicle identification number which is a unique number for every vehicle on the road. This will help you identify or track down the other driver if he or she decides to elope.
It is also important that you try and get some contact details of a few witnesses from around the scene of the accident. Make sure that they are not from either of the two vehicles and also make sure that they will be willing to come to court if and when they are summoned.
And if you feel that you are a victim of auto insurance fraud, and then make sure that you inform the cops about your suspicion. They will take note of it and conduct additional questioning to make sure that you are right. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
And when you do take it to court, it is better if you have tort option coverage. This is a part of your insurance policy which is optional. But it will give you coverage against expenses incurred to carry out litigation in court. This way you do not need to pay legal fees in order to win your battle. At least that part of the expenditure will be taken care of by your insurance company.
