If you need your medical bills, lost wages, and vehicle damage paid for, you should never trust insurance companies to have your back. Insurance carriers will usually do what they can to deny coverage, especially for serious or expensive injury cases.
Instead, work with our lawyers to fight for full compensation. When insurance companies try to block damages or devalue your case, our lawyers can take your claim to court and fight at trial to get you the full payments you need.
For your free case evaluation, call The Reiff Law Firm’s car accident lawyers today at (215) 709-6940.
Does Full Tort vs. Limited Tort Insurance Affect My Case?
In Pennsylvania, our insurance system is a bit confusing. Drivers can choose between two types of insurance that will affect their ability to sue and what damages they can get:
- Limited tort insurance prevents you from suing unless you have “serious injuries” or meet other criteria from 75 Pa.C.S. 1705(d). With lesser injuries, you have to use your own insurance and cannot claim pain and suffering.
- Full tort insurance allows you to sue for any crash, but it has higher premiums.
Regardless of which insurance you have, you can always take serious injury cases to court to get full compensation. Our car accident lawyers can analyze your case and find the grounds to file it in court if they are present.
However, whether you have full tort or limited tort insurance, you should never rely on the insurance companies to pay you what you need – even your own insurance.
How Much is My Car Accident Case Worth?
When you are laid up in a hospital bed, missing work because of your injuries, or dealing with the other fallout of your injury case, you need to know what your claim should be worth so you can avoid low settlements and get the coverage you need.
Most car accident cases need compensation for these four areas of damages:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Vehicle repairs.
Most of these are “economic damages” whose values can be calculated by looking at bills, pay stubs, bank records, appraisals, and more. However, calculating future lost earnings and medical costs may require expert reports.
Pain and suffering is more complex. We can use our extensive experience to help you understand the value of your particular injuries and what factors go into calculating pain and suffering. Often, the calculation is based on a broad analysis of how “serious” the injury is overall, with more severe injuries getting higher pain and suffering damages.
Who is at Fault in My Reading Car Accident Case?
Car crashes can happen for a number of reasons, and even one crash can have multiple contributing causes. In most cases, we determine fault by assigning blame to each driver who contributed to the accident.
For any driver to make the list of at-fault drivers, there must be something they did wrong to make the crash happen. This is usually a traffic violation like speeding or tailgating, but it can also be something generally unreasonable behind the wheel.
From there, juries can assign a percentage of the blame based on how much it contributed to the crash. In some cases, one driver might have been a bigger part of the cause, while another driver might have made the crash even worse. Both issues can be considered when calculating fault.
From there, each driver pays for their share of the total damages based on that percentage. If the victim shared fault, they lose out on that percentage of fault. However, they cannot be blocked from damages unless their fault is higher than everyone else’s.
What Are Some Common Causes of Car Accidents in Reading?
Reading has a mix of urban and suburban streets, along with backroads. This means your crash could occur on a highway, a tight city street, or even a winding, unlit road. Causes can be mixed, but they usually come down to some of the most common violations:
- Speeding
- Distracted driving
- Tailgating
- Running red lights/stop signs
- Failing to yield
- Drunk driving.
Otherwise, crashes are caused by carelessness, inattention, and failure to check blind spots (improper lookout).
Any of these causes can be grounds for a car accident lawsuit because they are either a violation of a specific law put in place to keep people safe or a general duty drivers must obey on the road.
Is the Driver or Owner of a Car Liable in a Crash?
In many cases, the actual driver is the one who shares the majority of the blame for a crash. Usually, their actions on the road – speeding, drunk driving, running a red light – are what causes the accident rather than a maintenance or mechanical issue.
However, the owner can share fault if something about the car contributed to the accident. This is common in commercial truck accidents, where dangerous equipment can make the trucking company that owns the vehicle partially responsible. This also applies to vans and trucks used by businesses.
Can My Insurance Cover My Injuries?
As mentioned, Pennsylvania’s full tort and limited tort system often means turning to your own insurance for coverage. Your policy must have some level of medical coverage, and many drivers opt for additional first-party benefits to cover damage, injuries, and more.
However, your insurance usually will not pay for pain and suffering. The only way to get this is through a lawsuit or third-party insurance claim against the at-fault driver.
When you use your own insurance, you might also get only a percentage of coverage and you must pay a deductible (often $500). This will not be reimbursed either unless you file against the at-fault driver(s).
If the other driver’s insurance is too low to cover your damages or they had no insurance, you might have UM/UIM (uninsured/underinsured motorist) coverage to pay for the rest of your damages.
Contact Our Car Accident Attorneys in Reading, PA Today
For help with your case, reach out to The Reiff Law Firm’s car accident attorneys at (215) 709-6940.
