All About Personal Injury Protection

Accidents and injuries are quite unfortunate and unexpected. That makes it more compulsory for us to insure oneself for such mishaps. Personal injury protection is an insurance that is apt in such cases. It does not focus on the person who is at fault but the damage done. 

Auto Policy

A person can insure against serious injuries and damage to the car with an auto insurance policy. Under this, the person will receive a sum assured. Many a time this sum may not be sufficient to recover from losses. Moreover, the insurance company adjusts your policy and pays you. This leaves us with deficient funds for repairs of the car and medical bills.

Personal injury protection

You can file an accident injury claim using any of these: bodily injury liability, personal injury protection (PIP), and medical payment. Auto insurance for personal injury protection is the right pick of the options mentioned above.  

Salient Features

•  PIP provides for your medical bills within a particular limit
•    It even covers recuperating expenses.
•   It aids collateral repercussions that include loss of income and home aid.
• It also functions partially as a health insurance for the injured irrespective of whether the person holds a health insurance or not.
• A person who may be the cause of the accident is not liable for the injuries of the other, under PIP holder.
• Each injured party involved in the accident is guaranteed a maximum coverage under this policy.

What it Covers

It pays a per-injured person benefit, the insurer, and the specified members of the policy. The policy pays the insurer irrespective of his fault in the accident. This means he being the first party insurance holder has the benefit of claim even if the accident is caused due to his fault. 

It includes various medical expenses such as nursing, hospital, surgical, dental, ambulance and x-ray charges. PIP may also provide for medication both long term and short term and even prosthetic devices. 

If a person is disabled or sustains some injuries that throw his daily routine out of gear, he can receive benefits for household help or other chores and tasks. Loss of income is also covered under this policy. 

Funeral expenses are also borne by the insurer. In some cases, the heir of the person who died due to severe injuries also may be benefited.

Caution

PIP coverage limits vary from state to state and need to be studied thoroughly.

Auto Accidents Involving Uninsured Motorists

Personal injuries are caused due to negligence of someone else. However, due to their negligence, you might be hurt physically or psychologically. One such type of personal injury events are auto accidents. You can claim the uninsured motorist coverage using your automobile insurance policy.

Situations for claim
You can claim insurance for the auto accident caused by someone else only if the driver of the car has no insurance and the accident is due to the negligence of the driver. It is taken that the driver has no money and thus has no car insurance. This leaves you with no chance to sue the driver. In this situation, you would make a claim against your own car insurance company. This amount should be within the limit of your coverage.

Procedure
If you are facing a similar situation, follow the below mentioned procedure for claiming insurance. If you come to know that the driver involved in the accident is uninsured or sometimes the driver is not ready to disclose his insurance details. Then immediately inform your insurance company about this.  This conveys that you intend an uninsured claim. This step should be taken as soon as possible as some insurance companies place a deadline up to 30 days. Inform your insurer immediately that you intend to claim the insured claim against the insurer.

An uninsured driver claim is no different from the regular car accident claim. But here the claim is against your own insurance company. The procedure includes investigation of causes, disclosure of your past and present medical records and verification of the witnesses. Another limitation is that you cannot force the insurance company to settle for the amount you suggest. There is also no scope of any legal proceedings or complaints against your insurer.  

An alternative is to submit your claim to an arbitration which is more informal procedure than the proceedings in the court. The case will be heard by a single or sometimes a panel of arbitrators. The case will now be settled with the arbitrator’s decision, whichever way it goes. The disadvantage with this settlement is that the loser has no or limited authority to appeal against the decision.

Personal Injury Lawyer on Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law

Source : lawfuel.com

Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law is probably one of the most controversial and volatile pieces of legislation I have seen in my 25 years of legal experience as a practicing attorney in Florida. This law creates an “immunity” from criminal prosecution for those who use “justifiable force,” including “deadly force,” to defend themselves from someone who is using “imminent… unlawful force.” Found in Florida Statute Section 776, it became infamous by George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin trial.

This week, how the Stand Your Own Ground Law defense can be used in a civil lawsuit was interpreted by a Florida appellate court. The case involved a personal injury claim that emerged from a criminal case, where the State of Florida charged Jose Alvarez, a Miami roofer, with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon for severely beating his co-worker, Derrick Roy Flemmings, with a baseball bat.

The attack occurred at their place of employment, a roofing company called Professional Roofing and Sales, located in Miami. In the criminal proceedings, the trial judge conducted an evidentiary hearing that included testimony from both Mr. Alvarez and his wife, as well as Mr. Flemmings. He dismissed the case, and found that Mr. Alvarez’s use of the baseball bat was justified under Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law. Read More News>>

Making a personal injury claim

Every year, millions of people get injured in accidents, either at home or on an outdoor location and then look forward to compensation. Many times, it is not their fault and in such kind of instances, it becomes important to take the assistance of right kind of personal injury claim, so that maximum benefits can be derived to get relief as early as possible.

 

How to Make a Personal Injury Claim?

The process of claiming for personal injury isn’t easy and involves lots of complications. However, with the help of a solicitor, a person can put forward his or her claim in a more organized way. To have a justifiable personal injury claim, a good and reputed solicitor’s consultation can be taken with prior appointment. However, the task of finding such a solicitor too isn’t that easy. Some market survey is required for that.

 

The moment you finalize your solicitor to claim your personal injury, you need to tell him or her about your legal expenses and also about your membership with a trade union, if it is there. Remember that it is absolutely essential to give complete details along with the copy of your insurance policy to the solicitor. Besides, it is also important to give details about the date of your accident, when did it happen, how did it happen, accurate details of the witness, if any. Moreover, you must also inform about your injuries and the kind of medical treatment that you have been undergoing as all these things play a very important role in getting free or a reduced cost to represent your claim legally. 

Apart from the above mentioned things, documents like proof of loss or a written proof that can act as evidence to your previous accidents too can be handed over to the solicitor for the claim.