If you are involved in a car crash that was not your fault, the other party’s auto insurance company should pay for your medical bills, vehicle repair costs, and other expenses up to their limit of coverage. That’s how the system is supposed to work, at least.
Unfortunately, insurance companies don’t always behave as ethically as they should. Some insurers have been known to refuse to pay out on car and truck accident claims, even when their policyholder receives a ticket or has been found to be at-fault by the police.
Why Might an Insurance Company Refuse to Pay After a Crash?
When the police explicitly name the other driver as the at-fault party in your crash, you might think that recovering the compensation you need and deserve would be an easy process. In reality, however, insurance companies can unilaterally decide not to pay out for a wide range of different reasons.
The two most common reasons why insurance companies refuse to release payment are:
Fault Disputes
After conducting their own investigation into your accident, the insurance company can decide that the police were wrong to assign blame to their policyholder. In many cases, they will claim that neither party was to blame for the accident. However, in some instances, they may try to shift responsibility for the accident on to you.
If the insurer insists that their client was not at-fault for your accident, they will refuse to release any payment to you.
Compensation Disputes
If the at-fault party’s insurance company believes that you are seeking more compensation than you are due, they may choose to release a portion of your money and keep hold of the rest. This issue most often arises when the insurer thinks you received medical treatment that you did not need. However, it can also occur if they believe that your mechanic took too long or charged too much to fix your car.
What to Do if an Insurance Company Refuses to Pay
If an insurance company refuses to pay for your expenses after a car accident, don’t panic. There are some steps that you can take to resolve the situation and recover the compensation you deserve:
Hire an Experienced Car Accident Lawyer
As soon as you find out that the other driver’s insurer will not be paying for your damages, you should begin searching for a Las Vegas car accident attorney straight away. Ideally, you should try to find one that has a lengthy track record of success in car accident cases such as yours. A long history of favorable outcomes is an excellent indicator that a lawyer knows what they are doing.
Have Your Attorney Write to the Insurance Company
Once you have found your new lawyer, you should immediately ask them to write a letter to the at-fault driver’s insurance company. In this letter, your attorney should explain that their refusal to remit payment is not acceptable, list a few reasons why their decision is wrong, and state that you will be fighting this case until your compensation is released.
In most instances, this threatening letter is enough to convince the insurer to send out a check as soon as possible.
Prepare to Take Your Case to Court
If the letter from your attorney did not persuade the insurance company to pay up, you may need to begin preparing to take your case to court. Your lawyer will be able to walk you through exactly what you need to do to get ready for a trial. Generally speaking, your prep work is likely to involve:
- Gathering any photographs you have of the accident
- Retrieving the crash report
- Compiling all of your accident-related bills and invoices
At your trial, the judge will decide if you are owed compensation and how much money you should receive.
Nevada’s Premier Car Accident Attorneys
If you are having trouble recouping the money you deserve after a car accident, please contact the Cap and Kudler legal team as soon as possible, or call us at (866) 412-7166. We have been helping Las Vegas residents in their fights against penny-pinching insurance companies for years, and we would love to do the same for you.
