No fault insurance, or state “no-fault” laws (no-fault policies are issued by only one company in some states), were designed to reduce the number of lawsuits arising from car accidents.No fault insurance allows you to recover damages if you’re injured in an auto accident, but it limits your right to sue the other party if you’re injured. If you have been injured in a no fault accident call NYIA, car accident doctors in Calverton.
There are two kinds of no-fault laws: (1) “mandatory” and (2) “optional.” Mandatory means that all drivers in the state must carry insurance to cover personal injuries resulting from an accident, while optional allows you to choose between carrying such coverage or not.
The no-fault concept was originally pioneered in the mid-1960s by New York State, which passed a law called “no-fault compulsory insurance.” The idea was that instead of having to prove fault following an accident, each driver’s own insurance provider would pay for medical treatment and wage loss up to certain limits.
No fault insurance can help keep insurance premiums down because it limits lawsuits.
The basic idea is that the person who caused the accident is responsible for your injuries, but not responsible for things such as damage to your car or other property. The no-fault concept has been adopted in a number of countries around the world and often applies to medical bills and lost wages as well as personal injury.
No-fault claims, however, can often be complicated and confusing to understand. If you were in a car accident and think that your injuries might be the result of it, you should see a doctor immediately so you can document any medical treatment and lost wages you may have received.
Emotional distress and pain and suffering damages, however, are typically excluded from no-fault benefits. Under certain circumstances, so too can punitive or “exemplary” damages.
The rules vary greatly depending upon the state and even the county in which you’re driving. For example, in New York State (one of the few states that still does not have “optional” no-fault), medical benefits are paid for by your own insurance company (up to the limits of that policy), but your right to sue for damages is limited to cases involving serious injury or death.
Many personal injury attorneys like to file claims with car accident doctors in Calverton against both parties so they can recover all available money, even if it means taking a no-fault carrier to court.
In another state with an “optional” no-fault law, such as Florida, you may face a threshold of serious injury or death before the at-fault driver’s insurance will cover your medical bills and lost wages under its policy, but once that threshold is reached there are no limits on damages.
The bottom line is that no-fault laws were designed to keep down the costs of insurance and not to provide a windfall for accident victims, so there are limits on what you can recover after an auto accident – regardless of who caused it – and those limits vary greatly from one state to another.
If you were injured in a car accident, it’s important to see car accident doctors in Calverton immediately so you can document any medical treatment and lost wages. While no-fault insurance allows accident victims to recover damages without having to prove fault, the rules vary greatly from one state to another. For more information about how your own state’s laws might affect your claim, talk to an experienced personal injury attorney at NYIA today.