You were driving down the road to pick up groceries when suddenly a car doing about 65 comes crashing into you. You decide to file a claim so that you can get compensated for your injuries, including your medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, and quality of life losses. In order to properly get reimbursement for the damages that you sustained, you will usually have to rely upon the insurance company of the other driver. The value of your claim is the total of what you can collect. It depends on many factors, including the injuries you suffered and the amount of the insurance policy the other driver has available to them to pay the claim. In most scenarios, the realistic maximum amount of money that can be collected—regardless of the injury—is the amount of insurance policy. It plays a significant part in a car accident case and policy limits determine the total amount of money that an insurance company may pay. Read on for information on how insurance policy limits impact your car accident value.
Determining Fault
California does not recognize “no-fault” laws. Therefore, a preliminary step in your car accident case, before you can recover damages, is determining that another driver is at fault. Multiple parties can be at fault and you can file against any or all of them. Even the plaintiff can be partially be at fault. California is a comparative negligence state, which means that a negligent plaintiff can still recover damages. However, the monetary amount is reduced by their degree of fault.