What If My Auto Insurance Company Denies My Car Wreck Claim?

Auto insurance is necessary when it comes to securing yourself from the financial damages of a car accident. People pay thousands of dollars every year to make sure that if they get in a car accident, the insurer will reimburse them. But what if your insurer denies your claim? 

It would be any driver’s nightmare to get in a devastating car accident, look at the huge bills for medical treatments and car repairs, and then get your car insurance claim rejected. This is why many people need an auto accident lawyer denver or anywhere else to make sure they get the compensation they deserve. You do not want to be stuck in a financial accident right after a physical accident. 

But why do auto insurance companies reject claims? We’ll dive deeper into answering this question, explaining the entire claim process and all the things you need to do to prevent getting your car insurance claim rejected. Not just that, but what you’ll have to do if your insurance company denies your car wreck claim. 

Reasons Why Your Claim Can be Denied

Car insurance companies can reject your claim for multiple reasons, from some issues with their terms of service to your claim to the insurance representatives just finding your claim to be fake.

While you can always ask the insurance agent or the company the reason why your claim was rejected, here are some of the reasons why auto insurance companies usually reject claims so that you can avoid falling into these expensive pitfalls.

Claim Beyond Coverage Limit

One of the most common reasons why someone’s insurance claims are rejected (or semi-rejected in this case) is because their policy does not have a sufficient coverage limit. Auto insurers will only pay the amount under your coverage limit. Anything over that is none of their concern. 

For example, let’s say that the cost of repairs is around $15,000, but your collision coverage limit is $10,000. The insurance company will only give you $10,000. You’ll have to pay the rest from your pockets. 

So make sure that all your car insurance policies have sufficient coverage limits. Do not ensure that it meets the state’s minimum coverage limit requirement.

No Proper Policy

Sometimes people need to pay more attention to what policies they are buying and what these policies actually cover. For example, liability insurance is mandatory in every state. But this policy cannot be claimed by the policyholder. 

Collision and comprehensive insurance are two optional policies that many people skip. But these two are the policies that you can claim to get reimbursed for the damages to your car.

Collision coverage can be claimed if your car is damaged in an accident, irrespective of whose fault the accident was. Comprehensive insurance is claimed when the damage to your vehicle is due to natural disasters like floods, fires, animal damage, and theft.

So if you do not have these optional policies, there are no grounds on which you can claim your insurance. Make sure that you have all the mandatory and optional coverage. Buying multiple policies can be a bit expensive. So choose the most affordable insurance company in your state. 

For example, if you live in Nevada, search for cheap Nevada car insurance companies and select the most affordable one that offers the best coverage. 

Misrepresentation of Facts

Whenever you make an auto insurance claim, the car insurance company will send a representative who will do thorough research, making sure that the claim is legitimate and the accident (or the car theft) did actually take place. This is why hiring a car accident lawyer could be very beneficial for you as they can help protect your rights and make sure you get compensated.

So if during the investigation, the representative finds that you have misrepresented the facts or are hiding something that should be told about the accident, it could lead to your insurance process getting delayed or even rejected. 

Insurance agents leave no stone unturned when investigating a claim, and if anything seems a bit off or does not fit the entire story, your insurance claim can be rejected. Hiring a car accident attorney Detroit, or one somewhere else, could be the solution here as they can help you find and document evidence and documents you need.

Intentional Damage

A big reason why many insurance claims are rejected is that car insurance companies deem the accident as intentional damage. It means that the policyholder knew about the risks of the accident and deliberately led to the crash. 

This can contend, and you can put your reasoning behind it. Make sure that you explain everything well and have video proof of the accident so that you can support your claim. Learning all the common types of losses an injured motorist will seek to recover could also help you a lot if you were to go ahead with a legal case.

Accident with Uninsured Driver

There are 32 million uninsured drivers in the US driving just like ordinary people, waiting for a disaster to happen. When you get in a car accident, and it is the other driver’s fault, you can claim the other driver’s liability insurance. But what if the driver at fault has no liability insurance?

In this case, you’ll have to claim your collision insurance for the repairs of your car and a personal injury protection plan (health insurance that covers car accidents) for medical bills. If you do not have these policies, you can sue the other driver, but only if he is there at the accident site. 

In the case of hit-and-run cases, suing the other driver is not possible. This would lead to you paying for the entire cost of the accident from your pocket. 

What to Do? 

So what to do when you get in such situations where your auto insurance company denies your car wreckage claim? The first point to note is that “prevention is better than cure” is very crucial. Let’s look at some things you can do to prevent getting into this situation. 

• Have all the essential and mandatory policies. Apart from liability insurance, it would be best if you also had a personal injury protection plan, uninsured motorist coverage along with collision and comprehensive coverage for complete protection against all road accidents. 
• Having uninsured motorist coverage is very important if your state is not mandated to have this policy. A UM policy is essential in hit and run cases.
• Always tell the truth about the accident, exactly how you remember it. Do not try to hide or make up things about how the accident happened. Having a dashcam to record the accident is even better. Report the accident the moment it happened. 
• Have sufficient coverage limits to prevent paying for the accident from your pockets. Your coverage limit should always be more than your state’s minimum coverage limit. 

Follow these steps to avoid getting into a situation where you cannot claim your insurance. But in case you still end up in such a situation, even after taking all precautions, you can hire an attorney to proceed with the matter.