So you find yourself in an auto accident and you just don’t know what to do. You’re a bit frustrated and no one’s communicating with you as well as they ought to. I’m going to walk you through five things that you need to know to make your claims process go smoother.
Involve The Police
The reason you want to do this is that you just need to make sure that you have a police report that way, you have a record of what what happened. The police will come up and they’re gonna see what happened. They’re gonna describe it to a diagram and gonna listen to what both of y’all said. The reality is, that’s going to become a piece of the puzzle as the adjuster is trying to figure out who’s at fault, and who should be responsible of what happened.
Make sure you get that police report because it’s going to have other important information on there. It’s going to have the names of the parties that were involved in it, the vehicle information, and the details about where the accident happened. It will have the details about your vehicle, who owns it, and who the insurance companies are, all of this information will be contained in that single document as part of the process. It does not determine who’s at fault, the police officer can’t determine also, that’s the court’s ability. Also, the insurance companies will solve that but it will be a piece of the puzzle that will help to formulate whether you know who’s going to be at fault who’s going to pay.
Take Notes And Pictures
Take pictures before anything is moved. I know you don’t want to look odd out there with your cell phone, taking pictures. But you need to take care of yourself and you need to make sure that you document this situation perfectly because those vehicles are not gonna be like that anymore. Once you’re talking to the adjuster down the road, no one’s going to go back and say, they won’t pay to see the damage.
Take pictures, and then take notes. Write down things. If you saw witnesses, get their name and number from them. Whoever the other person you got in an accident with, ask them for their information, trade insurance information, and trade contact information with each other. This will help the process along if they’re a sensible person. All the people who are sensible inside of the accident, shouldn’t mind sharing that information. And this will help the process go a lot smoother.
Know The Process
You turn the claim into your insurance agency and you’ve told them you had an auto accident, and they’re gonna start asking you some questions. They’re gonna want to know what happened and they’re gonna help you get the claim reported. This is when you also need to ask, what is the claims process. They shouldn’t be telling you what’s going to happen but instead, who’s going to take care of the claim and who’s going to be calling you next. Also, what’s going to be the process as far as getting your vehicle looked at to get it appraised for another’s damage, who’s going to be determining fault, how much time you should expect before you’re able to get your car fixed and also getting paid for your damages to your car.
They should outline all of this information for you, to help you to understand what that process is going to look like. That way you’re not left wondering and they should also stay involved if you need them. The claim is handled by the insurance company. But your agent should stay involved and know what’s happening that way they can help you. That’s part of their job, to help you if there’s a problem with your claim to move it along. They are there to help you to understand what’s going on.
Ask For The Supervisor’s Information
Whoever your adjuster is, ask for the supervisor’s information. If they’re not in, you just need to get somebody to talk to. You’re gonna put them on alert, it means you’re serious, that’s going to make sure that they take care of the process correctly. That’s going to help motivate them also, it protects you.
What to do when your auto accident claim is denied?
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Understand The Settlement
Settlements are complicated. They’re very lengthy, they’re gonna lay out a lot of different things. And you may not understand them, it is okay, It is perfectly fine. Your adjuster should not mind at all, if you call them and just say, you got your settlement. As long as you just call them and say, you don’t understand something. Ask them how much time they have to settle this out, if is there any sort of recoverable depreciation or anything like that, and what about rental car. All of the questions are questions that you need to be asking if you’re involved in a not-at-fault accident.
A Quick Recap
Number one is, to get the police involved, if they need to come out, do a report. Number two is, to take notes and pictures and be the guy to take your phone out. Make use of the Notes app, and maybe do a voice memo. Also, take pictures, or take a video and talk it out. That’s all legitimate, there’s no law against you doing that. Do it to help protect yourself and provide that information to whoever the adjuster is.
Number three is, know the claim process, ask your agent what is the process so that way you know what’s going to be happening, what you should expect, what the timelines are going to be, and all that sort of stuff. Number four is to ask for the supervisor’s information, that way you just have a backup of someone to talk to. And number five is knowing the settlements. Ask about the settlement, ask questions about it. Make sure that it’s crystal clear to you, don’t allow that claim to be closed and you don’t understand what’s happening.
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Beaux Pilgrim, CEO
Beaux Pilgrim
Reed Insurance