What To Do if Your Car Accident Insurance Claim Is Denied in California
Don’t give up and accept that you won’t get any support for your accident. If you feel someone else was responsible for the car accident, you must start planning for an appeal.
An appeal can be a complex process, and you’ll likely need much more evidence to show a car insurance adjuster unfairly denied your claim. Fortunately, speaking to a skilled California car accident lawyer can turn the tables in your favor.
Steps to Take If Your California Car Accident Claim Has Been Rejected
Car insurance companies are never in a rush to help California accident victims. And sometimes they never intend to provide insurance compensation, no matter how much evidence points to their policyholder’s fault. They can reject a claim in the hopes that you’ll give up your right to support.
They might use all of their resources to make it look like you were to blame for what happened. They may also send you to one of their own doctors to challenge how severe your doctor says your injury is. These are all reasons an insurance adjuster may decline your claim.
This rejection comes in the form of a denial letter. It’s important to go over this note with a fine-toothed comb.
These are a few of the steps to take if your California car accident claim has been rejected.
- Keep your denial letter. The car insurance company will send you a letter of denial. Don’t throw it away. Go over it. If you feel the reasons for denial aren’t valid, or there’s incorrect information in the letter, schedule a free case consultation with a reputable car accident attorney and have a lawyer go over it.
- Examine Your Car Insurance Policy. A denial letter may also claim that you weren’t covered for certain damages in your accident due to your policy terms. Check this out. An attorney can also scan your policy for benefits you may be owed.
- Contact the California Department of Insurance. If an insurance company is treating you unfairly or acting in bad faith, you can seek help from the Department of Insurance. You can also check to see how many other complaints there are against the insurance company you’ve been dealing with. An insurance company may have illegally delayed responding to your claim. The Department of Insurance can issue fines and demand better treatment.
- Gather Additional Evidence. It’s possible you didn’t submit enough evidence with your first claim. You’ll need to make sure you have stronger evidence to provide this time around. It’s also possible you turned over all evidence needed, and the insurance adjuster just didn’t feel like accepting responsibility and paying out support. In this case, you may need stronger evidence to force the insurance company to do the right thing. A skilled California traffic accident attorney would be much better suited to gathering this evidence and presenting in the most convincing way possible. Your lawyer can gather witness testimony, enter police reports, and seek out surveillance video that may show what happened. Your lawyer would also compile medical proof of your injury and your prognosis. Maison Law can also bring in California accident reconstruction teams to reexamine what happened and force an insurer to face the facts.
- Submit an Appeal. Your denial letter should include information on how to file an appeal to your denial. It will usually involve writing a letter that describes why you think your claim shouldn’t have been rejected. It should also be accompanied by the evidence you’ve uncovered. If you have a lawyer, your legal representative will submit this letter. A lawyer can represent the threat of a lawsuit to insurance companies, and adjusters may be more motivated by contact from a lawyer. They may work harder to keep you happy simply to avoid the cost and embarrassment of going to court.
Along with submitting your claim or your appeal, your lawyer works to get you the maximum in recovery support possible. This will usually be much more than you could get by filing a claim yourself (as you may already know after getting turned down).
Your lawyer makes sure you have enough to pay every medical bill. Your lawyer totals the paychecks and work benefits you’ve missed while being down with an injury. Your lawyer also works to earn support for the pain you’ve suffered and the emotional trauma you’ve been put through.
When Do I Need The Help of a California Car Accident Lawyer?
If your car accident involves car damage and only very minor injuries, you may not need the help of a lawyer for your case.
However, if your accident involves a more serious injury like a broken ankle or brain injury, a lawyer can often win you much more than you would have won for yourself. If you are being blamed for a car accident you didn’t cause, or an insurer has falsely denied your claim, you may also benefit from a lawyer’s help.
Contact Maison Law for a free, no-obligation consultation. If you do feel we can help you earn more for your injury, there’s no need to worry about having the money to hire us. We work under a contingency agreement and don’t get paid unless we win your case.
