Your Rights as A Passenger in A Car Accident

Whether you’re the driver or the passenger, at-fault or not-at-fault, car accidents are never fun. There is good news, however, for the passengers in a vehicle that has crashed.

If you’ve been injured in a car accident as a passenger, your case is typically less complicated than a driver or other personal injury case. Why, you ask? Because as a passenger, you don’t bear any responsibility for how the wreck occurred. That’s for the drivers and their lawyers and insurance companies to figure out.

Often, as an injured passenger, you have more rights than the injured driver.

How Do You File a Passenger Injury Claim?

First things first. If you were injured in a car accident as a passenger, you need to make sure you get insurance information for all the drivers involved before you leave the scene, if possible.

Second, you need to document everything that happened, from the moments leading up to the crash to the aftermath of the accident. Take pictures and detailed notes.

Then, you need to hire an experienced personal injury attorney to handle your case.

It’s important to remember the following if you’re a passenger:

• It’s possible that you will be able to recover the full amount of damages, even in a comparative negligence state that determines damage awards based on a percentage of fault with all parties involved.

• You will likely be able to potentially file claims against the insurance policies of all drivers, thus havins two liability policies come in to cover the event.

What if The Insurance Policies Don’t Cover All of Your Expenses?

In some cases, your injuries might exceed the coverage of the insurance companies you’re filing claims against. This happens when people keep the minimum insurance requirements, or sometimes it can happen when there are multiple people who are injured in a crash. When either of these things happen, you have the following options:

• You can try to tap into uninsured/underinsured motorist policies for the host driver involved.

• You can file a claim against your own insurance policy for the amount that is not covered by the drivers’ insurance policies.

As you can see, accidents involving passengers are very complicated matters, but you have many rights and avenues you can pursue in getting the amount of money you deserve.

If you or someone you love was an injured passenger in a car accident, contact the law office of Robert Armstrong today for help.