Another Saturday, another day of running errands. Everything went well, that is, until the last stop on your errands itinerary. Pushing a cart full of groceries towards your car, you stop around 20 feet from the vehicle to look at what appears to be a huge dent on the side of the car. Upon a closer look, there is indeed a huge dent, which appears to have come from another vehicle. Without a note left under one of the windshield wipers to explain the incident, you wonder how you should proceed to recoup the cost of repairing the damage.
You need to file an auto insurance claim and collect the evidence required to get the claim approved by your insurer.
What You Need to Know about an Auto Insurance Claim
As a formal request to receive compensation for the costs associated with a car crash, an auto insurance claim covers expenses related to the physical damage caused by an accident, as well as the physical and emotional symptoms triggered by the incident. You need to submit a car insurance claim in a timely manner and just as important, it has to be 100% accurate. Any inaccurate information put on an auto insurance form can lead an insurer to deny the claim. This is true even for what appears to be insignificant information, such as the date and time of the auto accident.
Most car accidents involve at least two vehicles, which typically leads to the calling of a law enforcement agency to conduct an investigation of the incident. A police officer or a state trooper thoroughly examines the physical evidence and interviews every witness that saw the crash. As the most important document filed with an auto insurance form, a formal police report describes the law enforcement officer’s version of events. Most auto insurance companies place a huge amount of significance of what is presented in a formal police report. For a parked car accident, you should not contact law enforcement, but instead, collect the evidence you need to file a valid auto insurance claim.
Collecting Evidence for a Car Insurance Claim
A parked car accident usually omits some of the information you need to include on an insurance form for other types of car crashes. For example, you probably will not be able to include the name and contact information of the other driver. If the driver of the other vehicle left his or her name and contact information on the windshield of your car, then you have a valuable piece of the evidence puzzle for submitting to your insurer.
The evidence collection process falls solely on your shoulders. You probably will not have any witnesses to the parked car accident. This means most of the evidence collection process involves taking photographs of the damage done to your vehicle. Make sure to shoot pics from different angles to capture the full extent of the damage. You also should make copies of every receipt that contains the charges for fixing your car.
Contact an Experienced Attorney
The auto insurance claim process is a notoriously long process. By working with a lawyer who specializes in handling car accident cases, you should significantly shorten the process. You do not need to have suffered any injuries to benefit from the legal expertise of a personal injury attorney. Speak with a state licensed personal injury lawyer today to ensure your claim receives the attention it deserves from your auto insurance company.
