You only have so much time to file a claim after being in a car accident due to legal rules called statutes of limitations. But before you even begin to worry about your state’s statute of limitation, you first need to consider how much time your state gives you to notify your insurance company about the crash.
As with statutes of limitations, the time you have to tell your insurance company about the accident and file a report with them varies on the state you live in or where the crash occurred. In some states, you can have as little as 24 hours to notify your insurer. For the most part, though, you are afforded more time. For example, in Kentucky, a report needs to be filed with an insurer within 10 days of the crash.
Should You Wait to Notify Your Insurer?
No matter where you live, waiting to notify your auto insurance company about your car accident is probably not beneficial. With every day that goes by, you could be forgetting more details about the accident, which would have helped your case had you remembered them. Furthermore, with each day that passes before you say anything, your insurance company will be more suspicious about the legitimacy of your claim.
Insurance companies have the right to deny or otherwise delay a claim to complete an investigation if it suspects that the claimant could be telling half-truths about it. If you wait a week to report an accident that you say was not your fault, then your insurer might have the grounds to want more information because your delay in taking action has raised some questions on their end.
Should You Rush to Report Your Crash?
You do not want to put off reporting your crash for too long. But you also don’t want to be too hasty to call your insurance company. If the details of your car accident are complicated, then you could misspeak when reporting it and inadvertently make it sound like you caused it when you didn’t.
What you can do to protect the validity of your claim is to work with a car accident attorney right after your crash. Your lawyer can help you understand what to say and what wording to avoid when first talking to your insurance provider. In some cases, your attorney might even want to report the accident to your insurer on your behalf, just to be certain that your claim begins smoothly.
If you live in Kentucky and need help telling your insurer about a crash, let Kentucky Injury Law Center assist you. We are always standing by to hear from new and returning clients. Contact our firm online or dial (270) 423-0023.