If you are involved in an automobile accident, it is likely that you will have physical injuries, as well as car damages. If the accident is no fault of your own, then you shouldn't be expected to pay the medical and repair bills. The driver at fault's car insurance company is who should pay these bills. You should know that the process of trying to get this money can be a drain mentally and physically and might result in you not getting as much as you hoped you would.

A settlement for auto-accident injuries is obtained from the automobile insurance company of the driver who is at fault in order to help pay the injured drivers medical expenses and replace or repair the damaged car. It is not the same thing as a jury litigation award. Settlements are made outside of the court, to help avoid long and costly legal procedures. The injured driver can hire an attorney or let their own insurance company to reach a settlement with the offending driver's insurance company.

As they are separate things and a settlement isn't a court matter, a lawyer doesn't need to file a lawsuit to obtain a settlement. They do have to do is be careful to come to an agreement before the statute of limitations ends. This varies from state to state, but generally it is around 2 years. North Dakota has a 6 years period, while Wyoming and Florida has 4 years, with Kentucky and Louisiana only allowing 1 year in which to file.

If no settlement has been agreed upon, this is bad news, as it means it could take anything from a few months to many years to get a settlement. Often insurance companies will be more likely to settle when it reaches the stage of a lawsuit being filed, but there are some who just become even more stubborn.

The size of the settlement is rarely more than the other at-fault driver's insurance policy. The policy could be as low as $25,000 or as much as $100,000. If it is a truck driver who is at fault, their policy could be much higher and be in the region of $1,000,000. The amount offered all depends on the nature of the accident. A car deemed a total loss, medical bills totalling around $10,000 and a fatality will always receive more money than a fender bender accident with no medical bills.

A release is the written agreement between the offending driver and the injured driver stipulating a personal injury claim for a settlement of money. Once this has been put through, the injured driver cannot make any further claims against the offending driver. In the event of there being two offending drivers who could be responsible for personal injuries, this is called a Joint Tortfeasor. This happens usually when there is one driver who pursues an auto-accident settlement with the victim, while the other contests the claim.

This is all very important information if you ever find yourself having to negotiate a settlement, but there is one thing to remember if you hire a car accident attorney [http://www.questionsattorney.com/car-accident-attorney/]. They will charge a fee of 40 to 50% of the settlement total. So it is worth weighing up and working out your actual damages, if they are very little and your medical bills are small, you might be better offer letting your own insurance company handle the settlement case.