Residents in Texas that are involved in automobile accidents are often times unaware of the entirety of options at their disposal. One of these options is to take advantage of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance coverage.
What Is PIP?
When involved in an accident, most drivers seek to file a claim against the other driver’s insurance. With this process, the insurance company will delay any payments until it is proven that the driver insured by them was at fault in the accident.
Personal Injury Protection insurance provides no-fault coverage. PIP is designed to provide relief to individuals that have been injured, incurred medical bills, and/or lost wages due to being involved in an accident. PIP is paid after a set of criteria is met and can begin even before a police report is finalized. This can be a great benefit to individuals awaiting redress from other measures because:
- Claims against the other driver’s insurance are not automatically paid. Insurance adjusters in Texas do not operate on the honor system and will force you to prove you are not at fault in an accident as well as the validity of any damage claimed. The job of these adjusters is actually to undercut claims made against the company they work for so do not expect help from them.
- Often times a motorist’s own insurance company may not be much more accommodating. Even if insurance is purchased that covers this situation the insurance provider has no legal obligation to immediately disburse funds to the insured.
PIP policies are a good idea because while your attorney litigates against the insurance carrier of the other driver and/or your own insurance provider, he or she can first assure that you are afforded the relief you need from a PIP policy.
PIP insurance is often purchased in the common increments of $2500, $5000, or $10,000. The amount a policyholder chooses to purchase will be made available to the policyholder and all passenger in the car of the policyholder. So if for instance a driver purchases a $5000 PIP and is involved in an accident while two others were present in their car. The driver and both passengers would be entitled to up to $5000 worth of protection from PIP insurance.
What To Do When Insurance Companies Fail To Pay PIP Claims
People involved in accidents involving PIP claims often do not contact a car accident attorney until after a claim has been denied. This is often when the insured understands for the first time that handling these claims on their own will not be as smooth as originally expected. These individuals are often met with two common insurance company tactics.
- Delay – All paperwork is submitted, an adjuster is on the case and has been spoken to multiple times and nothing happens. No call backs, emails go unanswered and most importantly, no check arrives. In some instances, a letter may be sent notifying a policyholder that a claim is being held up for some cryptic reason.
- Denial- In other cases, policyholders will come to us after having a claim outright denied. The reasons cited for denial of claims is often ‘failure to prove’ damages that result from an accident. Even when all documentation for bills and damages are supplied by the policyholder.
A skilled and competent car accident attorney can help with these matters in two ways. First, insurance companies are much less likely to play the delay and denial game with the policyholder once knowing that a policyholder is represented by an attorney from the moment they file a claim.
The second way an attorney can be of benefit is that when it is shown that PIP providers are unwilling to pay a qualified policy holder a ‘bad faith’ lawsuit can be filed. When this happens, a successful lawsuit could result in the damages paid to the policy holder being tripled.
Individuals in Texas that have been injured in an automobile accident can benefit from the expertise provided by the lawyers at the Law Offices of David Kohm.
Call our law offices today at any of our convenient locations and get a free consultation.
Arlington (817) 522-4451
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