Who Repairs Your Vehicle After an Accident?
In this video, Attorney Robert Maranto explains how car accident vehicle repairs are taken care of after an auto accident. Contact one of our experienced car accident attorneys in Buffalo NY if you were injured.
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This is a question that seems to be more straightforward than it truly is. In a clear liability accident, if our client were sitting at a red light and were hit from behind, the property damage would be paid for by the owner of the vehicle that struck from behind. Issues often arise in cases involving incidents such as T-bone accident, a red light accident, or a stop sign accident. In those cases—even though it may seem that the car running through the red light is completely at fault—insurance companies claim, depending on where the impact is to the various vehicles, that the other vehicles proceeding through the intersection bear some of the fault. The companies will try to save as much money as possible and refuse to pay the entire amount. We generally do not want to deal with companies that attempt to evade full payment, and we include this in our litigation. Some people involved in accidents need as much compensation as possible in order to replace their vehicle, pay off loans, and attend to other financial matters, so the lack of a full payout becomes a significant problem.
The other way to have property damage paid is through first-party coverage. In the event that an insurance policy has collision coverage, regardless of fault, the subscriber can demand that her or his insurance company pays 100% of the bills, minus the deductible. Once the bill is paid, there is a process created in New York State called the intercompany arbitration process. To illustrate, if an accident survivor’s insurance company pays $10,000 for her or his property damage, but the company only pays $9,500 because of a $500 deductible, the company has an expedited way pursue the other vehicle’s insurance company in order to recoup the $10,000. The company will recoup the subscriber’s deductible as well.