It’s a long-time struggle for car owners. You can never get the full value of your vehicle after a crash, but why? Why is it so difficult for a car insurance company to acknowledge that you need full compensation? Of course, they don’t just cause trouble with car values, but medical bills and more.
With an experienced car accident lawyer by your side, you can take on these pesky companies. Take advantage of the help of an attorney. Get involved with the right attorney now to fight for as much of the value of your damaged or even totaled vehicle as possible.
Your Vehicle Should Always Fit Into Property Damage Coverage
Technically your insurance doesn’t cover you as a driver. It covers your vehicle. So there is no reason why your vehicle should not fit into the property damage coverage. The one time that you might run into problems is in the event of a crash with an uninsured motorist. To that extent, you might consider adding uninsured motorist coverage or collision coverage to your policy.
There are ways of trying to get a car insurance company to increase the weight it values your vehicle before an accident, but not afterward.
Total Loss and Vehicle Recovery
Total loss is what you’ll experience when you “total” your vehicle, and it’s covered under property damage liability. If you have additional comprehensive or even collision insurance, you may have access to more coverage. Now, property damage liability is mandatory across all the states. In Georgia, insurers use a total loss formula, and with that formula, they’ll determine whether it’s worth repairing your vehicle or not.
Now that total loss formula certainly doesn’t help drivers. You’ve probably seen the Liberty mutual commercials where they joke about insurance companies only paying for 3/4 of your vehicle. That’s often the case. However, there are some ways that do justify not getting the full value of your vehicle — primarily vehicle depreciation.
Vehicles depreciate faster than nearly any other asset you could purchase. Within its first year, your vehicle might lose 20% of its value. However, it is very different for a car insurance company to say that your vehicle has depreciated in value and that your vehicle’s value won’t receive full coverage. You must estimate the value of your vehicle at what is considered ‘blue book value. If you need more information on how to recover your auto crash report, visit this page
The Georgia Fault System
Georgia uses a contributory fault system, which means that if you contribute to the crash in any way, you lose that percentage from your compensation. They do this as kind of a penalty, which is exceptionally unfair because the ones often penalized are the victims. Yes, the person most at fault is the one who takes the biggest hit in terms of insurance and payments.
However, when you have the victim of a car accident receive only part of their compensation because of a small traffic violation, it seems extremely unfair. Often car insurance companies will attempt to exploit the fault system to lower the value of a claim. They’ll often do this to lower property damage value. One example would be a car insurance company explaining that you contributed say 10% of the fault, and because of that contribution, your vehicle took on more damage.
Getting Maximum Compensation from the Car Insurance Company
There’s this troublesome situation in the vehicle world. First, if you purchase your car on loan, then your insurance cost will be higher. Not only because you need full coverage, but because they’re anticipating the possibility of having to pay the value of the outstanding debt. Second, they won’t pay the amount of the outstanding debt. How’s that for fair? You pay maximum payments and can’t get maximum compensation.
How to Manage Your Car Insurance Claim with an Atlanta Car Accident Attorney
Managing a car insurance claim isn’t something that anyone is taught. Instead, people figure it out the hard way. They get less than what they expected for their vehicle, their injuries, and everything else involved as well. They expect good customer service from their insurance company, and then that suddenly turns too. A car insurance claim often turns out exactly the opposite of what the claimants believe will happen.
At the Weinstein Firm, we have a team of well-experienced attorneys that are veterans when it comes to handling insurance companies. These insurance companies handle their cases differently when they have an attorney on the other side. They know they can’t take advantage of an attorney the same way they can attempt to manipulate an unsuspecting customer. Call The Weinstein Firm to direct the course of your insurance claim.
