If your truck accident injury claim is denied in California, insurers must give you the chance to appeal and try again with a different adjuster. You have other options, too. You can file a lawsuit against the truck owner and the insurance company if necessary. You might also report an unhelpful insurer to the California Department of Insurance.
If your accident was caused by a careless truck driver, you shouldn’t give up hope after being denied coverage. You can take another shot at getting your medical bills and other hardships covered. However, a second try may have a much better chance of success with a skilled California Truck Accident Lawyer investigating your case, gathering strong evidence, and handling the entire appeal claims process.
Getting a Second Chance If Your Truck Accident Claim was Rejected
After being in a frightening accident involving a large truck on a California Highway, victims can be dealing with major injuries, a crushed vehicle, and lost time at work. If a reckless truck driver is to blame, the driver and, in some cases, the driver’s employer ( e.g., a trucking company, Walmart, Amazon, or a local farm) could be fully liable for damages.
They’ll have commercial truck accident insurance to help victims after accidents, but support isn’t guaranteed. Businesses can have corporate lawyers and insurance adjusters to try to help them avoid financial responsibility.
In some cases, commercial truck insurers can also flat-out reject a claim, leaving victims with zero in support. They can use all kinds of excuses. Some of them are real, and some are pretty flimsy.
Thankfully, California provides victims with a method to try again. It’s a chance for victims to fix mistakes with their last claims or to correct injustices.
These are just some of the options truck accident victims have to fight back after an accident:
- File an Appeal. Commercial truck accident insurance providers will have an appeal process for victims who want their cases reconsidered. It starts with a formal letter that goes out to the insurers who rejected the case. The victim’s attorney can help draft this letter and get it into the right hands. Then the claim would likely be sent to a different adjuster, and the case would be reopened. The victims would have the chance to provide additional evidence this time.
- File a Lawsuit. If a trucking company still won’t admit fault and an insurer still refuses to cover a victim’s damages, it may be time to take them to court. The victim’s lawyer would have a strong case prepared to take to a judge and jury. Most cases do not have to be settled in court. When a trial is mentioned, insurance providers often return to the case and offer a fair settlement, so they can avoid the cost and embarrassment of going to court.
- Report the Insurer to the Department of Insurance. The California Department of Insurance (CDI) provides truck collision victims with another place to turn. If insurers broke state codes when denying the victim’s claim, they might have to pay a penalty and be forced to cover all recovery expenses. This can be a slow process, and the department administrators may not deem a patient’s case worth investigating. However, it’s one way accident victims can fight back.
Decoding a Rejection Letter to Help With Your Next Truck Accident Claim Appeal
After being in a frightening accident involving a large truck on a California Highway, victims can be dealing with major injuries, a crushed vehicle, and lost time at work. If a reckless truck driver is to blame, the driver and, in some cases, the driver’s employer (e.g., a trucking company, Walmart, Amazon, or a local farm) could be fully liable for damages.
They’ll have commercial truck accident insurance to help victims after accidents, but support isn’t guaranteed. Businesses can have corporate lawyers and insurance adjusters to try to help them avoid financial responsibility.
In some cases, commercial truck insurers can also flat-out reject a claim, leaving victims with zero in support. They can use all kinds of excuses. Some of them are real, and some are pretty flimsy.
But victims are owed another chance to get support through an appeal. And learning from the first claim that was denied can help give a second attempt better odds of succeeding.
When insurers send you a rejection letter, the letter is supposed to clearly explain and reference the reason for the denial. California’s Code of Regulations Tit. 10, § 2695.7 goes over how an insurer must include what statute or policy rule, or other exclusion, is the reason for the claim being tossed out.
The reason can seem petty, or it may even be untrue, but it gives you a basis for how to approach your next attempt at getting compensation. Your lawyer will know why your claim may have failed and be able to provide a claim that better explains what happened and your need for support.
Reasons an Insurer May Reject Your Truck Accident Claim
A denied claim can seem like a betrayal to someone who has a serious injury and is losing time and money at work.
A rejection letter can be discouraging to receive, but it can also instruct victims on what they may have done wrong and how to correct any missteps in another attempt.
These are a few of the excuses a trucking company or a commercial truck insurer may hide behind:
- A truck driver simply refuses to accept fault despite what a CHP accident report says. The trucking company believes the driver, simply because it’s cheaper for them and allows them to avoid liability. A skilled attorney can secure witness testimony and hire accident reconstruction teams to prove a truck driver was at fault.
- Claiming a victim’s injuries aren’t as bad as they claim, so insurers can get away with paying less. A Maison Law attorney works with the victim’s doctors to determine what medical care will cost and what care may be needed in the future. Our lawyers demand additional settlement money, so the client has enough to pay for any care that’s expected to be needed in the future.
- Insufficient evidence provided. A lawyer fully investigates a truck accident and collects powerful evidence that may have been missed during the first insurance claim. Maison Law makes sure the evidence can’t be ignored this time.
- Insurance policy conditions in the fine print are sometimes used as an excuse to reject a claim. A lawyer has the experience to read over insurance policies and knows when insurers are falsely claiming that they aren’t liable.
- Missing deadlines and improperly filled out paperwork. A lawyer would handle all the paperwork for the truck accident victim and make sure all sneaky deadlines were met.
Do I Need a California Truck Accident Lawyer?
If your injuries in a truck accident are very minor, or there’s just car damage, you may not need a lawyer’s help with your case.
However, if you are seriously injured in a truck accident and the truck driver was at fault, you should speak to a Maison Law attorney as soon as possible. Serious injuries like bone fractures carry higher medical bills, and that increased cost causes insurers to fight even harder against having to accept blame. Large trucking companies will also have corporate lawyers at the ready to try to blame you for what happened or question how bad your injuries are.
If you’ve already filed an injury claim and been rejected, it’s also a good time to discuss your case with a lawyer.
If you’ve already been through the claims process once, don’t give up hope! Maison Law offers a free case consultation. It’s a no-risk opportunity to find out what your case is worth and how you can build a strong case for a second go-around with unhelpful insurers.
There’s no obligation, but if you need our help to hold a trucking company and an insurance company liable, you won’t need any money. There are no up-front costs to hire our lawyers. We also don’t get paid if we don’t win your case or appeal. If we win, our fee comes out of the settlement check that an insurer must write for you.
