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Q: What should I do after I have left the auto accident scene?
A: Your health should be your first concern. If you are injured, you should seek medical care from either a hospital emergency room and/or your family physician within the first few days after your accident. Delay in medical care may be harmful to your health. Use your health insurance to pay for your medical care expenses. The at-fault driver's auto insurance adjuster frequently refuses or delays payment of your medical bills. Delay in payment of your medical bills will result in bill collectors hounding you if you don't use your health insurance to pay them.
Always notify your own auto insurance carrier about your accident within three days of your accident. Your own auto insurance policy demands that you provide prompt notice of any auto accident involving personal injuries and property damage. Failure to provide timely notice to your own insurance company could result in the denial of your insurance coverage. Remember, the other driver may not have auto insurance, in which case your own auto insurance will have to pay for your property damages and personal injury claims. You would be surprised how often people claim to have auto insurance at accident scenes, only to find out later their policy was cancelled.
When you are feeling better after your accident, you or a family member needs to take your damaged car into an auto repair shop of your choice to obtain an accurate repair estimate. Repairs of your car cannot commence until after obtaining a written repair estimate. Your insurance company adjuster will often come in with a repair estimate below the amount which any legitimate repair garage would actually accept to fully repair your car. Further, the adjuster's repair estimate will often attempt to avoid paying for all the damage needed to be repaired, hoping you won't realize that you have been short changed on the repairs.
The most you can receive for your vehicle's damage is its book value. You can find out what that value is at your local library or on the internet. By knowing your vehicle's true value, you can make sure that you receive the full value instead of the purposely underestimated value that the insurance company adjuster has come up with. The value of your damaged car is a huge area of dispute with insurance company adjusters.
If there is any dispute regarding who might be at fault for your auto accident, be sure to photograph the entire accident scene and the damage to your car within a few days after your accident. Accident photos often prove in valuable in establishing fault. You might consider obtaining a copy of the police report and any written statements taken by the police. Remember that the insurance company adjuster will be closely reviewing whether any portion of the blame for causing the accident can be shifted to you. For example in a recent one of my cases, the at fault driver claimed to have a witness who stated my client ran a red light. The accident scene photos however proved that the witness' view of the traffic light was blocked by a large sign. The photos destroyed the insurance company's defense.