Personal injury claim/Premium query?

Question

A friend was involved in a car crash recently where she was the passenger. She was injured and in a position to claim. However, will a claim on the insurance (policy belongs to her husband) mean that their premium will go up?

Answer 1

try your local solicitors, many offer no fee no win - alternatively your home insurance may offer free legal claim service

Answer 2

Yes, any claims made to the policy will cause the premium to go up.  

But it is much better to get WELL than to worry about raising the insurance premium.

Answer 3

absolutely, people sometimes forget that insurance is underwriten *premimum calculated, based on risk both in large numbers (how many other people in your age group, income level etc have filed claims in the last severa years) AND in subjective risk (how much has it cost insurers to insure YOU for the last several years.

Insurance payout is not as simple as people think...an insurance company is being paid(premimum) to take a risk on you and your property (car) the risk is that the car will get into an accident, get stolen etc and they will have to pay (claim) their hope and whole business model is to have enough people who pay premimums to have enough money to pay out the claims and still make a profit.  

Another thing to keep in mind is to realize that (using simple numbers) auto insurance costs $1200 per year to insure a 30,000 car.  *(lets pretend it is only insuring against theft)  that means that the insurance company has to insure 25 cars before they will break even if just ONE is stolen, now 1 in 25 aint bad so the insurance company makes that the base cost.  But to keep it fair for the people who live in podunk nowhere and have no neighbors and much less risk of their car being stolen, the insurance company adds more to the premimum for those car owners in say New York city where there is a good chance (as compared to the people who live in podunk nowhere) of the car being stolen.  Its the same concept when filing a claim the insurance company now has one more claim to pay out.  

This is not to say that if she does have a VALID claim of injury that she shouldnt file, but each claim that is "squeezed in" (read, not totally a true injury but close) under a policy makes the process more expensive the next go around.

Answer 4

Yes, though it should only go up if the accident was his fault, in which case it probably would go up regardless. If the accident wasn't his fault, the injury claim should all be going to the other persons' insurance, though they will put it on his first and then transfer it over to the other person's once you two agree not to sue or you settle out of court. Email me if you need more info, I recently went through this and got all my medical bills paid, car fixed, and 3,500 in my pocket. Accident wasn't my fault. Truck ran red light.

Answer 5

The claim means that her husband will lose two years no claims bonus (or a life under a protected no claims bonus policy). If the bonus is reduced then the premium goes up by about 50%.

I would point out that the amount paid out under a personal injury claim is likely to be substantially more than any increase in the insurance premium.

Answer 6

The claim should go against the at fault parties insurers.  If her husband was at fault for the accident and she holds him responsible then yes she can sue him and his insurers will probably pay out (sounds a wonderful marriage..........!)

If her husband has protected no claims discount it shouldnt affect his premium, although it will mean he is probably stuck with same insurer as protected no claims is (generally) not transferrable to another company if there has been a claim.

If she has been unable to work, has a permanent disability or absolutely hates her husband then I suppose it might be worthwhile.

Answer 7

Usually yes.

Answer 8

Unless she has accident forgiveness.

Answer 9

Although it is always possible the the insurance will go up (if any claim is made) it is not always so.  It generally depends on the company.  If they were seriously injured in the accident and they were not at fault...they should try looking into hiring an attorney.  Generally, personal injury attorneys recover their fees on a net recovery basis (meaning they take part of the settlement) but dont charge a retainer fee of any sort.

Answer 10

OK.. here is the big question.

Who's insurance will she be filling on?  You say the policy belongs to her husband.. welll it doesn't really... it belongs to both of them.  If the accident was not his fault and the insurance is already paying for the physical damage done to either their car or some one else property, then her filing a medical claim will not affect the premiums.  The damage is already done with the other claims.

If there are no other claims from the accident on their policy, and she then claims her medical claim, there are going to be some questions raised.  Such as, why wasn't the accident reported?  who else is involved?  will the physical damage now be reported and claimed?   This type of 'misleading' will certainly raise flags for the insurance company.

If the accident was not his fault, the she should be filing unders his insurance.  If the other party is uninsured or under-insured then they should have a rider on their policy for this case.   Claiming on an accident that is proven not to be the drivers fault generally does not make premiums increase... unless it happens more than once in a 3 year period.

If she does claim and the insurance company decides to raise their premium, it will be done at the end of their current policy terms (generally a 6 month term).  Insurance companies can not raise premiums mid-term... nor can they cancel mid-term due to claims.

I suggest you makes the claims, and then if their premiums are raised at the policy rennewal date, then they should just shop around for a better price.  There are lots of insurance companies out there and they will most likely find one that is either the same cost of less.

One more piece of advice, don't listen to their insurance agent. As friendly as they may seem, they don't work for you.  They are an AGENT of the INSURANCE company and therefore are looking after their employer's best interest and what's going to affect their income.   Agents are paid based on commissions on premiums paid with deductions on claims processed.   Therefore, if the agent is trying to talk them out of filing the claim, it's simply because it will affect his/her pocket book... not because they have the customers best interest in mind.

Good luck and I hope this helps!