If you were involved in a car accident and were left with injuries to your body and damages to your car, you have the right to go after the responsible party to collect money for these things. If you do this and win, you may be awarded a large settlement to compensate you for your damages. When this happens, you may wonder who will pay you the money you are entitled to, and the answer will depend on the situation.
The Other Party's Insurance Company
In normal car accident cases, the person responsible for the accident will be responsible to pay the damages. This typically means that the responsible party's car insurance company will pay, but that is assuming the person has insurance.
As long as the person had auto insurance at the time of the accident, collecting the money you are owed should not be a problem. It may take negotiating with the insurance company or filing a lawsuit in court, but you should be able to collect the money without any problems.
Your Insurance Company
On the other hand, if the responsible party did not have insurance at the time of the accident, your auto insurance company might have to pay you for your damages. This is assuming you have insurance and that you have uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. These are standard types of coverages found on most auto insurance policies, and they are designed to kick in when an accident happens with someone that does not have insurance.
The Other Party
The downside to collecting money from your own insurance company is that there might be limitations, but there is little you can do if the responsible party did not have insurance. You do have the right to go after the person for the money; however, if the person did not have insurance you may have a hard time getting money from him or her.
Because of this, some personal injury attorneys may turn down car accident cases when the responsible party does not have insurance; it can just be too hard to collect the money that they owe. Personal injury attorneys usually receive their fees when their clients receive their settlements. If a client is awarded money but cannot collect it, the attorney would not get paid.
If this is the problem you end up with, you could try to get the person's wages garnished or try to seize assets they have, but there is no guarantee that these methods will work.
If you are trying to decide what to do after your car accident, you may want to talk to a personal injury attorney (like those at the The Reed Noble Law Firm PLLC). From there, you can determine what the best route for you would be and hopefully you will be able to collect the money you deserve.
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