Maison Law represents people who are hurt in rental car accidents due to another driver’s mistake. Our Turlock personal injury lawyers aggressively seek compensation for our clients from reckless drivers and, in some cases, rental car companies. Please contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation for all local injury victims. It’s a no-risk opportunity to find out what your injury may be worth and how to hold insurance companies fully responsible for recovery costs.
How Do I Know If I Need a Rental Car Accident Lawyer?
If your rental car accident involves only property damage, you should be able to reach a fair agreement with your car insurance company and the rental car company without the help of a lawyer. But when you are seriously injured in a collision and another motorist is to blame, a Turlock rental car accident lawyer may prove to be an important protection.
Insurance companies and insurers who provide protection through rental agreements will look for ways to avoid having to provide support. They can try to blame you for an accident you didn’t cause or question how bad your injuries are. Your lawyer fully investigates your case and uses the evidence to force insurers to accept responsibility. Then your Maison Law representative demands the maximum in support available for you and your family.
Rental Car Accident Dangers in Turlock
Local residents traveling busy routes like Fulkerth Road or Highway 99 will see plenty of dangerous moves and close calls caused by careless drivers. There are plenty of reckless motorists traveling in their own cars, but a visitor unfamiliar with the area may be in a rental car. They may not know where they are headed and confusion on local streets could cause someone just passing through to collide with your family vehicle.
In other cases, rental car customers might be driving as safely as possible when a large farm truck or semi-truck rams them from behind.
You may be relying on your own car insurance to cover you while you drive around in a rental SUV. You may have purchased collision insurance at the rental car desk. Either way, sorting out who may be paying the medical bills and the car repairs bills will be difficult. There’ll be plenty of opportunities for car insurance adjusters to short-change victims and leave them paying for their own care.
A Maison Law representative demands the full benefits available for clients and protects victims from unhelpful rental car companies only concerned with getting their vehicle fixed.
Who Is Liable After an Accident Involving a Rental Car?
In some cases, an accident involving a rental car would be resolved much like an accident involving two personal vehicles. Many people who rent cars rely on their normal car insurance to cover them if an accident occurs.
But there are other insurance options that may be purchased or that are included as bonus protection with certain credit cards that can play a role in how an accident is resolved.
These are just some of the insurance choices that could affect how you receive accident compensation:
- Another Driver’s Insurance Policy — If another driver strikes you while you are behind the wheel of a rental car, the driver’s auto insurance provider should be paying for the damage. This would also be true if the other driver is in a rental car and hits your family vehicle. The at-fault driver’s insurance should apply. The other driver’s insurance must cover the cost of repairing or replacing a rental car. The policy should also help you pay your medical bills and replace the income you lose while healing.
- Your Car Insurance — If you caused damage to your rental car, your car insurance may cover the damages. The rental car company would want to repair or replace the car before they lost a lot of profit while the car was unable to be rented out. Many car insurance companies cover policyholders when they drive a rental car for personal use. It’s important to ask what your policy will cover before you sign a rental agreement. This gives you the chance to purchase additional coverage if necessary. Unfortunately, the support would likely come after you’ve had to pay a large deductible.
- Credit Card Coverage – Some credit cards provide accident protection when you charge a rental car. These protections usually repair or replace your rental car up to a certain limit. They might also cover vehicles that have been stolen or vandalized. Credit card protection may not cover the damage to another vehicle or the cost of injury support.
- Your Car Rental Car Coverage – Rental car companies like Enterprise offer many levels of insurance you can add on when you rent your car. There are also 3rd party rental car insurance providers who offer policies. Some cover any damage to a rental car and the damage to another vehicle. Other policies provide compensation to you and any other injured victims. Beware: This coverage may also come with a large deductible you must pay before coverage kicks in for the rest.
- The Rental Car Company – If a rental car company somehow contributed to your accident, your lawyer would demand full compensation for your damages. A rental car business may have given you a car with faulty tires or worn brakes. They may not have warned you of potential dangers in the area. These and other circumstances might leave a rental car company liable for your damages and injuries.
One big advantage of having a skilled Turlock car accident lawyer handling your case is that your attorney identifies every party that may owe you support after a crash. The other driver, a rental car company, and even your own car insurance provider could be required to help you recover.
The more injury claims you can file, the better the chance that all of your hardships will get covered. It reduces the possibility that you’ll be stuck paying recovery bills from an accident you didn’t cause.
What Insurance Tactics Should I Look Out for After a Rental Car Accident?
A crash involving a rental car might leave you depending on several different insurance companies for the support you need to recover. Unfortunately, you can end up facing off with more of the tricks insurance adjusters use to limit your support.
These are a few of the tactics insurance companies could use to stall or avoid paying you compensation:
- Slow Response: Auto insurers covering rental cars or even a careless driver’s insurer can purposely delay responding to your injury claim. They know you’ll be receiving more and more medical bills and perhaps getting behind on things like credit card bills and the rent. They hope to make you nervous about your financial stability. Once the bills have piled up and you are behind on things like mortgage payments and car payments, they hope you’re desperate enough to accept any offer they extend to you.
- Lowball Settlement Offer: Insurers then send you a settlement agreement that contains a lot less in support than you need to rebuild your life. Insurance agents hope that you don’t know how much your injury is worth and how much any future care required may cost you. If you don’t have a Maison Law representative on your side, you might not know that it’s a lowball offer. Once you sign the dotted line, you no longer have the chance to return to the insurer to ask for more when you find your recovery isn’t complete.
- Blame the Victim: Insurers like to find ways to blame victims for their accidents. They may claim that you caused the crash, despite what a California Highway Patrol accident report says. Adjusters may even try to twist any statements you’ve given them to make it appear you admitted fault. Don’t make any recorded statements if you are asked to. The evidence your lawyer collects will be the best defense against these weak arguments.
- Downplaying your Injuries: A common play used by insurers is to question how serious your injuries actually are. Adjusters may even send you to their own doctors to try to downplay your injuries. They do this to get away with offering you less than you’ll need to heal fully.
- Won’t Mention an Attorney: Insurance adjusters will avoid mentioning that you have the right to seek a car accident lawyer. In fact, if they know you don’t have one, insurers may rush out a lowball settlement offer to you. They hope you’ll sign off before you consider calling Maison Law.
Your rental car accident lawyer is your defense against these common insurance strategies. Your lawyer handles all of the communication and negotiations with insurance providers so you can avoid frustration and use the time to heal.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kinds of things can I be compensated for?
The medical bills you have now and the estimates on care you may need in the future should be fully compensated. The paychecks you lose while missing work due to an injury should be reimbursed. You must also seek support for the physical pain and emotional trauma you endure. The repairs for the car you were in should be paid.
How long can I wait to file a car accident claim in California?
Act quickly. You are granted up to two years to file an injury claim, but waiting can hurt your case. You should turn your case over to a skilled lawyer as soon as possible so that valuable evidence isn’t lost. Surveillance footage might end up erased and
What if I can’t afford to pay a car accident lawyer?
You can still afford the protection of a Maison Law attorney. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the insurance settlement check you receive from a car insurance company or a rental car insurer.
Contact a Turlock Rental Car Accident Attorney
Contact Maison Law to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with an actual Turlock rental car accident lawyer. We want to hear what happened to you. We’re going to answer your questions and make sure you are fully aware of the insurance tactics you’ll face. These shady practices are meant to limit the money you receive. Avoiding these pitfalls will be key to earning what’s fair for your car accident injury claim.
