Passenger Personal Injury Claim

If you were a passenger in a vehicle involved in a car accident, it is likely that you are eligible for compensation by way of a personal injury claim. This article will discuss the circumstances under which you may make a successful personal injury claim for your injuries.

It must be noted that as a passenger in a vehicle involved in a car accident, you may file a personal injury claim under both the liability insurance coverage of the driver or owner of the vehicle you were in and the coverage of the driver or owner of any other vehicle involved in the accident. However, one element of key importance that you must be aware of is that you cannot collect from both drivers any more than your total claim’s worth. That being said if one driver or owner does not have insurance to cover your total damages you can make the rest up against the other vehicle driver or owner. In addition, you must know that you can collect against the other vehicle driver or owner even if that person was not greatly at fault. The reasoning behind this is that as a passenger you are not at all at fault for the accident.

To illustrate consider the example below:

April is a passenger in car X which has an accident with car Y in which car Y seems to be more at fault, but car X was also partly to blame. It is determined that your total damages are $20,000 however, the driver of car Y has only $15,000 worth of insurance coverage. After you collect that $15,000 from car Y driver’s insurance you can collect the remaining $5,000 from car X’s insurance.  In the event that either driver was using a car belonging to someone else you may also look for compensation from the insurance company of the car’s owner.

It is important to note that you may not file a liability claim against the driver of the car you are riding in if that driver is a relative with whom you live with. In such cases you are considered as an insured person under liability insurance and as an insured person you cannot file a liability claim against his or her own liability coverage.

Immediately after your accident you may also file a claim under the medical payments coverage of your driver’s or owner’s auto policy. The medical payments coverage is not based on liability and therefore does not require any discussions with insurance companies about who was at fault. In addition, it must be noted that the medical payments coverage does not include compensation for pain and suffering, lost income or anything other than actual medical bills. And such coverage pays out only to the

limits of the coverage. However, if you do collect under medical payments coverage and then later receive liability compensation from the same insurance company the amount you collected under medical payments will be deducted from your liability settlement.

For more information on filing a personal injury claim contact personal injury attorneys in Anchorage Alaska.