It is always good to play it safe in life and provide everything that is of great importance to you. Home, car, and life insurance are the most common choices. While we all hope we never need insurance, we still feel safer when we have it.
Traffic accidents happen on a daily basis. Whether the cause of the accident is fatigue, carelessness, bad weather conditions, it is good to know that insurance will cover the costs. A car accident can happen to anyone at any time and these are the moments when it is important to know how to act.
There are those steps that are taken regardless of who is to blame for the accident. In these moments, it is important to stay calm. If injuries have occurred, it is necessary to call an ambulance. The next step is to call the police. We advise you to take a few photos from the scene of the accident that will help you collect damages.
As for the insurance collection itself, it often happens that the insurance company estimates less damage than you think it should. For this reason, many hire a lawyer. The best car attorney in Knoxville will do everything in his power to get you paid as you go. Your task in all this is to make his job as easy as possible for you, that is, to try to remember as many details as possible and to be completely honest with him even when you think that some things will not work in your favor. The essence of this insurance is to ensure a person against the economic consequences of an accident. The accident itself is defined as an event, ie the occurrence of circumstances that is sudden, unpredictable, and independent of the insured’s will. By its, most often external action on his body, it suddenly causes some of the consequences, such as death, bodily injury, disability, damage to health, impairment of working ability, and the like, which requires medical help.
Of course, there are situations when it is not worth taking a lawyer because the damage is small, and the clients themselves want to solve the paperwork and collect the damage, which is, of course, feasible. However, keep in mind what we mentioned – the insurance company will always try to pay you minimal compensation. In the case of vehicle damage, it is very important that you do not repair anything until the insurance company’s assessor has assessed the damage.
If the insurance company does not pay damages or its undisputed amount within the legal deadlines (14/30/60 days – depending on the type of insurance and the complexity of processing the claim), the applicant is entitled to payment of the due amount of damages, or undisputed part of the damage increased by the amount of interest, from the day of filing the claim, ie from the day when the company received the notification of the insured event. He is also entitled to compensation for the damage caused to him. In the event that you experience a traffic accident abroad, it is necessary to determine in the territory of which country the accident occurred, and whether it is the same signatory to the agreement that provides for compensation in your country. In these situations, hiring a lawyer would be a smart choice.
Compensation for damage in a traffic accident can be tangible or intangible. Both occur as a consequence of a traffic accident, with the proviso that only material damage can occur on the vehicle, while persons may suffer non-material damage. Non-pecuniary damage is often not visible to the naked eye, is related to the fear and juice suffered, and requires a medical examination.
Of course, there are some conditions that a driver must meet in order to be entitled to compensation. Although they can vary from one insurance company to another, there are also common ones, namely that the driver must have a valid driver’s license, not drive under the influence of alcohol, not leave the scene of an accident without forwarding his personal data, and insurance data. In addition, the vehicle involved in the accident must be technically correct.
The amount of compensation varies and depends on the type of mental pain. The amount of compensation for primary and secondary fear is lower than the amount of compensation for mental pain due to reduced life activities and/or impairment, which is again lower than the amount of compensation due to death. Compensation for the mental pain suffered due to death is possible only to the close relatives of the deceased (parents, legal and illegal partners, children, siblings, grandparents), if they lived in the same household and if there was a lasting community between them. Close family members are entitled to, in addition to compensation for non-pecuniary damage, also the right to compensation for certain types of material damage.
If you really want to settle a car accident without a legal representative, one thing is especially important, and that is that you always contact the insurance company in writing to have complete documentation as evidence. The procedure for collecting compensation for injuries begins by going to the emergency room or obtaining referrals for medicines, which includes invoices for medicines. It is important that you keep these documents so that you can collect costs later.
Traffic accidents are great stress for both the participants and their families, followed by a series of inconveniences. Among the most common causes of traffic accidents are drunk drivers, unadjusted speed, disrespect of traffic signals, and often bad roads. Among the mistakes of drivers in urban traffic conditions, driving at an insufficient distance – the distance between vehicles – should be singled out.
