A car owner and driver that accepted a job in a state with a no-fault insurance system would want to know as much as possible about no-fault car insurance.
Approach used in states with no-fault insurance system:
Each driver recovers any losses from his or her own insurance company.
Insurance companies in state sell personal injury protection (PIP), a type of coverage.
Money obtained through PIP covers most economic damages. PIP’s coverage applies to all the occupants in the policyholder’s vehicle. In some states, PIP would cover an injury to a pedestrian, if that same pedestrian were to get hit by the insured automobile.
Limitations placed on the claimants
In a state with a no-fault insurance system, the injured party cannot sue the at-fault party for non-economic damages. Those would be the ones related to a victim’s pain and suffering.
There is an exception to that particular rule. If an accident has caused the injured party to sustain losses that exceed a specified level, then that same injured party does have the right to sue the at-fault party.
The reason for the creation of no-fault insurance systems
Some states chose to introduce such a system when the civil courts had to deal with a flood of personal injury lawsuits. Creation of the no-fault insurance system provided those states with a way to lower the number of such lawsuits.
Sadly, not all of the accident victims with a personal injury claim had elected to pursue a lawsuit, when so many others did choose to go that route. At least one family had refrained from suing the at-fault driver, because he had been drunk and uninsured. Not even when the head of that family was declared partly responsible for damages to one of the involved vehicles did that same policyholder elect to sue the insurance company.
The personal injury lawyer in Mountain View legal system seeks to limit the number of frivolous lawsuits; however, does it do enough to encourage the pursuit of fair compensation for any injured driver or passenger? For instance, does it encourage reimbursement for loss of future earnings if a passenger has not yet reached adulthood?
True, the system does allow for extension of the statute of limitations, if an injured victim is a minor. How often, though, do the parents involved in a car accident get approached about the condition of their children? Children or teens with mild injuries might get viewed as uninjured. Insurance companies discourage utilization of costly diagnostic procedures. Yet, the results obtained upon utilization of such procedures can work to showcase the medical problems that might have resulted from the impact created by a negligent motorist. The full consequences of such a sudden impact should not pass unnoticed.