19 Things to Know About Bodily Injury and Property Damage

Auto Accident and Bodily Injury and Property Damage: 19 Things People Do Not Know

1. Pre-exist­ing con­di­tions: Injuries from an auto acci­dent can wors­en pre-exist­ing con­di­tions, and you may still be eli­gi­ble for com­pen­sa­tion for the aggra­va­tion of those conditions.
2. Emo­tion­al dis­tress: Vic­tims of auto acci­dents may also expe­ri­ence emo­tion­al dis­tress or men­tal anguish, which can be includ­ed in a bod­i­ly injury claim.
3. Com­par­a­tive neg­li­gence: In some states, if you are par­tial­ly at fault for the acci­dent, your com­pen­sa­tion may be reduced based on your per­cent­age of fault.
4. Uninsured/underinsured motorists: If the at-fault dri­ver is unin­sured or under­in­sured, your own insur­ance pol­i­cy may pro­vide cov­er­age for your bod­i­ly injury and prop­er­ty damage.
5. Hit-and-run acci­dents: You may still be able to recov­er com­pen­sa­tion for bod­i­ly injury and prop­er­ty dam­age in a hit-and-run acci­dent through your own insur­ance pol­i­cy’s unin­sured motorist coverage.
6. Loss of earn­ing capac­i­ty: In addi­tion to lost wages, you may also be com­pen­sat­ed for the loss of future earn­ing capac­i­ty if your injuries pre­vent you from return­ing to work or force you to take a low­er-pay­ing job.
7. MedPay/PIP cov­er­age: Some states require dri­vers to have per­son­al injury pro­tec­tion (PIP) or med­ical pay­ments (Med­Pay) cov­er­age, which can cov­er med­ical expens­es and lost wages regard­less of who is at fault.
8. Expert wit­ness­es: Expert wit­ness­es, such as med­ical pro­fes­sion­als or acci­dent recon­struc­tion spe­cial­ists, can pro­vide valu­able tes­ti­mo­ny to sup­port your bod­i­ly injury and prop­er­ty dam­age claims.
9. Sub­ro­ga­tion: If your insur­ance com­pa­ny pays for your bod­i­ly injury and prop­er­ty dam­age, they may have the right to sub­ro­gate or recov­er those costs from the at-fault par­ty’s insur­ance company.
10. Prop­er­ty dam­age lia­bil­i­ty lim­its: Each state has min­i­mum lia­bil­i­ty lim­its for prop­er­ty dam­age cov­er­age, which may not be suf­fi­cient to cov­er the full extent of dam­ages in some accidents.
11. After­mar­ket parts: Insur­ance com­pa­nies may opt to use after­mar­ket or used parts when repair­ing your vehi­cle, which can affect the qual­i­ty and safe­ty of repairs.
12. Total loss thresh­old: Each state has a total loss thresh­old, which deter­mines when a vehi­cle is con­sid­ered a total loss based on the repair cost as a per­cent­age of the car’s value.
13. Gap insur­ance: If your car is financed or leased and declared a total loss, gap insur­ance can cov­er the dif­fer­ence between the car’s actu­al cash val­ue and the out­stand­ing loan or lease balance.
14. Depre­ci­a­tion: Prop­er­ty dam­age claims may account for depre­ci­a­tion, mean­ing you might not receive enough com­pen­sa­tion to ful­ly replace dam­aged items with new ones.
15. Rental car reim­burse­ment: Your auto insur­ance pol­i­cy may include rental car reim­burse­ment, which can cov­er the cost of a rental vehi­cle while your car is being repaired or replaced.
16. Pain and suf­fer­ing cal­cu­la­tions: There is no stan­dard for­mu­la for cal­cu­lat­ing pain and suf­fer­ing in bod­i­ly injury claims, and the amount award­ed can vary wide­ly between cases.
17. Insur­ance adjuster tac­tics: Insur­ance adjusters may try to min­i­mize your claim or pres­sure you into accept­ing a low set­tle­ment offer.
18. Set­tle­ment vs. tri­al: Most auto acci­dent claims are set­tled out of court, but some cas­es may pro­ceed to tri­al if a fair set­tle­ment can­not be reached.
19. Tax impli­ca­tions: Gen­er­al­ly, com­pen­sa­tion for bod­i­ly injury is not tax­able, but com­pen­sa­tion for lost wages may be sub­ject to taxes.