A Common Tool For Achieving Settlement of Vehicle Damage Claim

Both sides must have the proper documents, in order to achieve settlement of a vehicle damage claim. Yet the majority of such claims get resolved over the phone. In most of those cases, the claimant does not have to provide the adjuster with a demand letter.

Rules that claimant should follow after settling the dispute with the adjuster:

The adjuster might send a check, but that check should not be deposited until after the claimant’s signature has been placed on the release form, and the signed form has been returned to the insurance company.

Sometimes the insurance company will not deliver the compensation/check until after it has received the signed release form. Claimants only deposit those checks that have the phrase “Property Damage” stamped on them. Those are checks that cover the losses that resulted from property damage, and not from any injuries.

What determines the size of the compensation?

If the insurance company has not challenged the allegations made by the claimant, then the value of the damage to the claimant’s vehicle should determine the size of the compensation.

Still, it is possible that the defendant’s insurer might claim that the owner of the damaged vehicle (the claimant) was partly responsible for the accident. If that were the case, then the amount of money delivered to the vehicle’s owner (the claimant) would get reduced to a degree that corresponded with the extent of the claimant’s contribution to the factors that caused the accident.

If an insured driver had purchased collision coverage, and the same driver were hit by an uninsured motorist, then that policyholder could make a 1st party claim, in order to obtain coverage for vehicle damage. In such a situation, the insurance company would not be able to look into the degree of fault on the part of the policyholder. That degree of fault would not affect the size of the policyholder’s compensation, as per an accident lawyer in Waterloo.

The fact that someone with a 1st party claim enjoys a freedom from concerns about an investigation into his or her degree of fault has not always been part of the system used for handling a 1st party request for coverage of damage to an insured vehicle.

Years ago, an insurance company did have the right to look into the claims made by the claimant/policyholder. For instance, if an uninsured and drunk driver were to hit an insured automobile, and push it into the car in front of it, while both vehicles had stopped at a red light, the allegations accompany the 1st party claim could be investigated. Today that is not the case. Today, a claimant/policyholder in a similar situation would be assured of compensation for the property damage.