What to do if involved in an auto accident:

1) Report the accident to your insurance company.
2) If you are injured, contact an attorney.
3) Receiving medical care.
4) Claim or lawsuit against the driver at fault.
5) Repairing your car.

1. Report the accident to your insurance company
Your insurance policy usually requires you to report the accident within 24 to 48 hours or as soon as possible. Reporting the car accident to the claims department of your insurance company should result in the insurance company giving you a claim number. This claim number will be referenced on any payment and all correspondence concerning your claim.

You have a duty to cooperate with your own insurance company. However, you are not obligated to give statements or any other information to the insurance company for the driver of the other vehicle. If you are injured, it is recommended that you not discuss the accident or your injuries with any agent or adjuster for the insurance company for the other driver without legal advice.

2. If you are injured, contact an attorney
Speaking to an adjuster for the insurance company for the driver at fault in the accident without legal advice could be dangerous in several respects. Whether you are on medication or merely having a memory lapse, the insurance adjuster will often try to hold you to any inaccurate or incomplete information that you may give regarding the nature of your injuries, the extent of your injuries, or how the accident happened. It is best to review this information with an attorney beforehand.

3. Receiving medical care
If you are injured, you should obtain whatever medical care is reasonable or necessary to treat your injuries. The law generally requires an injured person to mitigate or reduce his/her injuries/damages by obtaining proper medical care and following his/her doctor’s advice (except that a patient cannot be faulted for refusing to submit to any surgery that involves substantial risks or offers only a possibility of a cure). Medical treatment also serves to document your injuries as insurance companies often question or challenge any late reported injuries as not being accident related.

Medical Bills.  If you elected to purchase Med-Pay in your auto policy, medical bills for your accident related can be submitted to your own car insurance company for payment under your Med-Pay coverage.  Some injured victims use Med-Pay to pay the deductibles and co-pays required under their health insurance policy, but some health insurance policies require that you exhaust Med-Pay before submitting health insurance claims.  If you did not elect Med-Pay coverage, you should submit your medical bills to your health insurance company.  If you have neither Med Pay or health insurance, you will have to pay for or make arrangements to pay for all post-emergency room care as such care is incurred.  You are still responsible for paying for emergency room care, but you cannot be refused emergency room treatment even if you cannot afford to pay for same.  Sometimes your attorney can make “lien” arrangements with your doctor to pay for your medical care from your bodily injury settlement.  The insurance company for the negligent driver that caused your injuries will not pay for your medical bills as they are incurred.

An injured victim recovers his/her medical bills and other bodily injury damages (e.g. lost wages, physical impairment, pain and suffering) from the at-fault driver at the end of the claim by way of final settlement or court verdict. Settlement of a personal injury claim is not advisable until an injured victim has concluded all medical treatment or has reached maximum medical improvement.  Once a bodily injury settlement is concluded, you cannot recover additional sums later for any purpose, including unexpected medical bills or additional wage loss.

MED-PAY.  Since July 1, 2003, Med Pay is an optional automobile coverage.  You must pay a premium for it.  Med Pay is available in incremental amounts starting at $5,000 per person for auto accident related medical care with some policies offering up to $25,000 in medical benefits per person. 

Med-Pay coverage should pay for reasonable and necessary medical care for all injured occupants in the insured auto, regardless of whether or not such an injured person is a family member of the vehicle owner or an unrelated passenger.  Thus, Med-Pay coverage is broader than health insurance, which is limited to specific members of the family.  However, the limited dollar amount of Med Pay is often not sufficient to pay the medical costs of serious injuries.

 Med-Pay coverage will not pay for the medical care of persons injured while occupying other vehicles involved in the accident.  If the accident was your fault, these injured persons will be eligible to make a claim against you and your auto insurance LIABILITY coverage.  This LIABILITY coverage must be sufficient to cover ALL of the medical expenses of ALL persons injured due to your fault, PLUS, the LIABILITY coverage must be large enough to cover all past and future wage loss, all permanent impairment, disfigurement, pain & suffering, and all other items of damages of all injured persons. See LIABILITY COVERAGE.

4. Claim or lawsuit against the driver at fault
Medical payments from your own auto policy do not compensate you for your lost wages, physical and mental pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, any permanent physical impairment, disfigurement, or any loss of earning capacity. An attorney can assist you to fully recover these damages from the at fault driver or his/her insurance company, as well as assist you in negotiating with the Med Pay carrier or your health insurance carrier in meeting legal obligations to repay them for medical benefits provided. There are various time deadlines for making and settling bodily injury and wrongful death claims. It is therefore advisable to see an attorney early for assistance in making these kinds of claims.

5. Repairing your car
If the auto accident was clearly 100% the fault of the other party, the insurance company for the other party should agree to pay for the repair of your car as well as your rental car expenses. However, if the other insurance company is not admitting 100% liability for the property damage, it is best to refuse to talk to them. Instead, you can and should make a claim under your own collision policy with your insurance company, and your insurance company can help you to recover the deductible. Talking to the insurance company for the other driver runs the risk of unknowingly giving them a basis to claim that you were “comparatively negligent”, and consequently their unilaterally reducing your claims for either personal injury or property damage by the percentage of your alleged negligence (or their refusing to pay anything because of their claim that you were as much at fault as the other driver).

If you are dealing with the other driver's insurance company directly on your property damage claim, you should refuse to discuss with them any aspect of your personal or bodily injuries if in fact you were injured until you have consulted with an attorney.

If your car is "totaled", your insurance company only has to pay for the "fair market value" of your vehicle less the deductible. Fair market value can be determined by the amount that a used car dealer would likely receive in a sale of your car immediately before the accident, or the likely sale price of your car through a private sale utilizing newspaper advertising. Even if your outstanding loan on the car exceeds the fair market value, the most you can recover is fair market value.

If the accident was your fault, and if you carried collision coverage, your insurance company will pay for repairing your car less the deductible amount of your collision coverage. If you also had rental car coverage, your company will pay for a rental car up to the stated amounts in the policy while your car is being repaired.

If the accident was your fault, and you did not have car insurance, you will have to pay for your own car repairs.

My office does not handle purely property (vehicle) damage claims, or any claims of an injured party who is the major cause of an accident.

If you are injured, contact:

Tim LaFrance
Attorney-at-Law

for a FREE CONSULTATION at:

(970) 259-3321

Or

Toll Free: (888) 878-9320

Our mailing and street address is:
150 East 9th Street, Suite 100, Durango, CO 81301
(Red Snapper Building—Street Level)

Or E-mail us at: attorney@lafrancelaw.com
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