Advice on Post-Accident Notification of Your Insurance Company

Every one that has purchased an automobile insurance policy has made a contract with the insurance company. All such policyholders must comply with the terms of that contract. Those terms are stated in the purchased policy. One term calls for notification of the insurance company anytime that the insured vehicle gets involved in an accident, as per personal injury lawyer in Waterloo.

To whom should the policyholder direct such a call?

The policyholder could call his/her agent. 

—The agent should receive a request for a letter. That letter should confirm the fact that the agent has spoken with the claims’ department.  

—An alternate approach could consist of using the company’s website to contact the claims’ department. In that case, the victim should ask for an email that confirms the fact that the policyholder did report the accident.  

A policyholder could also use a telephone to contact the claims department.  

What other obligations must a policyholder carry out, after he/she has been involved in an accident?

To allow his or her insurance company to access his or her medical records  

To ensure completion of subrogation: That is usually accomplished by hiring a personal injury lawyer. 

To go along with any reasonable requests from the insurance company 

To provide his/her own insurance company with a chance to inspect the damaged vehicle 

Could there be any situation in which the insured vehicle was damaged, but the policyholder would not be obligated to call the insurance company?

Yes, that would be the sort of situation that would exist if the insured vehicle were to suffer only minor damage, while the policyholder had been driving it on his or her own property. In that case, the policyholder could decide to pay out-of-pocket, and to avoid contacting his/her own insurance company. 

Another situation to consider

Suppose that an insured driver was to collide with another insured driver, but neither of the drivers’ vehicles suffered much damage. The one driver might say to the other motorist “Don’t call your insurance. It would just force you to pay a higher premium.” 

Was that good advice? Should the other motorist that received that suggestion follow it? 

No, any accident that takes place away from the policyholder’s home must be reported. The person that was ready to skip performance of that task might have sore shoulders, or a sore back on the next day, then that same individual could want to submit a personal injury claim. 

If an insurance company were to discover that one of its policyholders had failed to live up to the terms in the contract, it could raise the price for that same policyholder’s premium. That was the very thing that the dishonest party had encouraged the other party to avoid.