Motor vehicle accidents happen far more often than we may want to imagine. Hundreds of thousands of people suffer from serious injuries as a result of collisions of the roads. In most cases, when you are involved in an accident that is not your fault, the person at fault’s insurance company is required to cover any damage that occurred to your vehicle as well as your medical expenses from an injuries you suffer in the incident. After all, depending on the severity, injuries can be incredibly expensive to care for and it shouldn’t fall on you — the victim in this case — to have to worry about fronting the hefty cost. Hospitalization, doctor’s appointments, long-term medical care, physical therapy, medicine, and even — in the most extreme cases — around-the-clock care can be extremely expensive. Many ordinary people may not be able to afford these costs, and so it is usually up to insurance.
However, what happens if the person at fault does not have insurance or doesn’t have enough to cover the physical damages and medical expenses you need? There are two options. The first one, and the far less likely one, is that the person at fault has enough money to sign away a check to cover all your expenses. More likely than not, though, it usually falls onto something we call filing an uninsured motorist claim. An uninsured motorist claim is when you file a claim explaining that the person at fault does not have insurance to cover the expenses you need. In this way, you are not left alone to deal with the imposing financial burden of medical expenses.
Similarly, you can also file a underinsured motorist claim. In cases like these, you file these claims when the person at fault has insurance, but does not have enough insurance to cover all the expenses that you need covered. Sometimes driver’s will get an insurance with the lowest amount of coverage because it costs lest. In these cases, it is important to know all the proper information so you don’t wait to file until it’s too late.
Whenever you are involved in an accident on the road, it is important to take pictures of everything, exchange information with the other party involved, and make sure you get the police to come and evaluate the scene. In this way, if you do realize you need to file an uninsured motorist claim, you have all the facts and evidence to back up your case.
A lot of the time, those involved in an accident who do not have insurance will try to strike a deal with you by means of a straight exchange of money. If your injury is serious enough, it is important not to settle in the case that your medical bills end up being more expensive that what you agreed upon.
If you or a loved one has suffered from any sort of accident and the party responsible does not have insurance, it may be in your best interest to reach out to Cohen & Cohen, a group of experienced attorneys who have successfully served residents of Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, and the surrounding areas, who specialize in cases like these.
