Making a claim to your own auto insurer when you or someone else has been injured or your vehicle, or another’s vehicle has been damaged, no matter who may have caused an accident is called no fault insurance.
Benefit Entitlement, Despite Causing the Accident
A good example is: maybe you missed a stop sign and drive into an intersection, causing an accident by hitting another vehicle with yours. Both vehicles are damaged and the other driver and you sustain personal injury. You can make a claim for property damage to have your insurer pay vehicle repairs, assuming you have collision insurance. Accident benefits can also be claimed to your insurer so that you could be compensated for loss of income and medical or rehabilitation, even if you caused the accident.
Your Insurance Premiums Can Be Increased if you are At-Fault
You can make a claim for benefits with a no-fault policy. Whether you are completely or partially responsible for an accident, an insurance company will make that determination. Fault determination rules are used by the insurance company to investigate who is the responsible party. If it happens to be you, insurance premiums will more often than not go up unless your policy includes accident forgiveness.
Claims of Negligence
Besides, increased premiums for you, the other driver can bring claims of negligence, loss of income due to the accident, pain and suffering and other damages against you. If the other driver has cooperated with his/her insurance company and has not breached the policy terms, he/she will be defended by their insurance company and the claim will be paid out according to liability limits on the insurance policy.
To prove that you were negligent the other driver’s lawyer will have to prove it again, because, although, you were the driver at fault the fault determination rules are irrelevant in this lawsuit. Your lawyers are going to try and find circumstances to prove contributory negligence of the other driver. This would be the other driver contributing to the accident by not using a turn signal or not having a seatbelt on during the accident. If any of these contributing factors are proven, it will reduce the amount that your insurance company will have to pay. This can be a limiting factor for you.
The bottom line is no-fault insurance will allow you to claim benefits from your insurance company, even if you are the driver at-fault. This is usually dependent on a person’s insurance premiums, giving others the right to sue for damages, if you are at fault. It helps to consult with an injury lawyer in Leamington and Huntsville.