Should I Call My Insurance Company After a Minor Accident?

Most of us just pay our car insurance bills every month and hope we never need to use our insurance.

But accidents do happen, and once you’ve been injured in a car crash, you’ll quickly realize how even your own insurance company can give you the runaround. One of the most complicated aspects of a car accident is dealing with the insurance company.

Typically, within just a few days after the accident, you will start to receive phone calls from an insurance adjuster who will want to settle your claim as fast as possible – don’t do it.

Here are some key points to be aware of when dealing with the insurance company.

1. Insurance adjusters are trained negotiators – Oftentimes, your insurance adjuster will act very nicely and helpfully, but you need to be careful. The job of the adjuster is to protect the insurance company for which they work. Their goal is to minimize the amount of money paid out on your injury claim; often, they will even deny the claim or fail to recognize the full value of the settlement.
2. Don’t just accept the first settlement they offer you. Sadly, after a car accident, most people need money quickly to repair their car and cover medical bills. The insurance adjusters know this and will usually offer a lowball settlement immediately. Don’t accept this; call DK Law.
3. Anything you say will most likely be used against you – The goal of the insurance adjuster is to make up their own version of the accident (to minimize it) and have you agree with them. Do not give a recorded statement or sign anything.
4. The insurance company often seeks to avoid paying medical expenses – this is often accompanied by an attempt to settle with you for as little as possible. They might even suggest that you are lying and making up injuries.
5. If you won’t settle today, insurance companies might ignore you. Once insurance companies know you won’t accept their first offer, they often ignore you, hoping you’ll go away or that the statute of limitations will expire (two years in California).
6. Don’t sign anything until you call us – Many of the forms and documents the insurance companies want you to sign might have fine print that you don’t understand. You could be signing away your rights or accepting an offer without even knowing it.
7. Insurance companies don’t have to treat you fairly – When the other driver is at fault for the car accident, it’s very common for that driver’s insurance company to deny or delay paying your claim.

Do Not Talk to the Other Driver’s Insurance

After a car accident, it is very common for the other driver’s insurance company to start calling you (even if it’s clear that the other driver is at fault). Even if you are at fault, there is still a good chance that the other insurance company may call you.

You are not required to speak with the other driver’s insurance company. Again, this is why you want to call an experienced accident lawyer for help.

Whenever there are injuries in an auto accident, it’s best to avoid the other driver’s insurance company. 

How Much Insurance Companies Pay for Pain and Suffering

Once you start the process of filing an injury claim after an accident, you’ll probably start to wonder how much money your settlement might be worth.

Insurance companies don’t use just one method to determine the value of a personal injury claim. This usually includes compensation for lost wages, medical bills, and money for “pain and suffering”.

Multiplier Method

The multiplier method is often used to evaluate pain and suffering damages with a certain number. It was common practice for injury lawyers to multiply the actual damages by three to reach a damages amount $ that is reasonable.

So if your lost wages were $2,000 and your medical bills were $5,000, you would multiply $7,000 by 3, which would equal $21,000.

Nowadays, however, insurance companies are not as quick to agree with this, and instead, they arrive at these figures using complex software programs and algorithms designed to undervalue your claim.

There are several variables that contribute to this approach, including the severity of your injuries and the duration of your recovery. 

The Daily Rate Method

Some personal injury lawyers and insurers will use a daily rate to attempt to calculate the pain and suffering damages on an injury claim. With this method, a daily rate or “per diem” is assigned to each day (week, month, etc.) that you suffer from injuries pertaining to the car crash.

An example would be that you had to see a doctor regularly and take pain pills to ease the pain, and you did this for 2 months. Perhaps you consider each day of pain to be worth $300 to you, so $300 a day multiplied by 60 days equals $18,000.

Choosing the daily rate can be tricky, but often the rate is based on your daily earnings. Since you were unable to work, the $300 per day helps recover your lost wages.

As you can see, all of this gets very tricky and complicated, and once you start dealing with the courts, and a judge or jury, it can be overwhelming.

What to Do If the Accident Was Not Your Fault

Should you contact your insurance if the accident was not your fault? The easy and fast answer is yes. A common myth is that if you are not at fault, then you don’t need to report the accident to your insurance company.

This is false because there might be several coverages on your insurance policy here in California that you might want to use. It is always best to follow the proper procedures after a car accident. 

How Long Insurance Companies Have to Settle a Claim

Most states, including California, have regulations to protect consumers by setting a timeframe for the insurance company to acknowledge your claim, investigate, and make a Fair settlement.

California requires that the insurance company acknowledge all claims within 15 days. In addition, the insurance company has to accept or reject the claim within 40 days after receiving proof of the claim.

If the claim is accepted, then payment must be made within 30 days from the actual date the settlement was reached.

Repairing Damages After an Accident

This is a very common question that we hear all the time from our clients. People want to know if they can repair their own car after being in an accident, rather than dealing with a repair shop that the insurance company suggested.

If you own the car outright and don’t have a balance due to the bank, then you may be able to get a check made out in your name so you can choose a mechanic.

Negotiating With Insurance After a Car Accident

Do not trust the insurance company to think about you first. Trust us. If the insurance adjuster tells you that you won’t need a lawyer, then call us immediately.

Insurance companies are known for offering lower settlements to accident victims who are not being represented by an injury lawyer. Car accident victims with minor injuries (and minor property damage to their vehicle) might be able to successfully negotiate with the insurance companies.

But you don’t want to fight the insurance companies alone when you have a real settlement on the line. If you have been injured in a car crash, you need to remember that the insurance company doesn’t want to pay out any money – that is the truth.

Major car accident injuries are expensive. Your settlement demand will include the:

• Cost of any physical therapy
• Costs of medical bills
• Lost wages from missed work
• And money for pain and suffering

Why Contact DK Law 

First, you need to deal with the injuries you suffered, getting to the hospital, dealing with the damage to your car, and the insurance companies start calling you.

Remember that the insurance company (especially the defendants’ insurance) is not necessarily your friend. If you were injured in a car accident, you need to be very careful about what you tell the insurance companies. We have years of experience fighting with the insurance companies to make sure our clients get maximum compensation.

We only get paid when we win your case.