No-Fault Car Accident Claim

Answer:

After years and years of working as a personal injury lawyer, it still amazes me how many people call me about a Utah car crash that happened a year or two ago and they’re still hurting, yet they’ve never been to see a doctor or been to a hospital.

Like clockwork, the story I hear is that they couldn’t go to the doctor because they didn’t have money or health insurance for the medical bills. Not getting checked out by a medical provider after a crash is the single biggest mistake that we see in Utah car crashes.

What do you do if you don’t have health insurance or money saved? How do you get the help you need?

I can help you with that. In Utah, when a car is insured, there’s a kind of coverage on every Utah car called no fault, personal injury protection, or PIP. Those are all different names for the same thing. This PIP coverage is critical to know about so that you don’t make one of the biggest car crash mistakes by not seeing a doctor.

Because of personal injury protection, you can get the medical treatment you need for a car crash. When there’s a crash, PIP is going to pay some benefits for you and anyone that was in your car.

It doesn’t matter if the crash was your fault. Let me say that again. It doesn’t matter if the crash was your fault. PIP will still pay benefits.

What are those benefits? PIP will pay the first $3,000 of reasonably incurred medical expenses. That means you can go to the doctor—$3,000 is not a lot of money, but it’s enough to get you started.

If you miss three days of work, PIP will pay 80% of your wages, up to $250 per week, for as long as a year, and it’ll pay $20 a day for help around your house if you need it. There are also a few other PIP benefits you can get in special cases if somebody is killed by a crash. One of the rules in PIP law is that lawyers can’t charge you a fee on those PIP benefits unless you get denied and there’s a lawsuit.

To get the PIP benefits, you file an application with the insurance company of the car that you were in. If you’re a pedestrian walking or you’re on a bike, you file the PIP application with the insurance company of the car that hit you. The insurance company will give you a claim number. When you go to the doctor or the hospital, you give them the name of the insurance company and the claim number.

Doctors and hospitals do this a lot. They’ll know how to bill PIP insurance. If questions come up about turning to PIP insurance for expenses due to a car accident, call us for free to get more information. I’d love to answer any questions you’ve got.