Will your insurance rates go up or will you be dropped after filing a personal injury claim after a car accident? Now this is a question I get repeatedly in my intake meetings and it’s typically, quite frankly, a husband’s asking, um, after their wives have been injured in some type of car accident and they’re concerned about, well, if my wife sets up some type of car accident and injury claim, are my rates going to go up? Uh, and I’m sorry guys, I just hear it so often and it’s usually the husband. So, um, so they’re really two different issues going on. Uh, one is, uh, are your rates going to go up? And the second issue is, are you going to be dropped? Um, so in Florida you’ve got everyone’s got your PIP insurance. So after a car accident, if you received some type of injury and you’re going in for treatment in regardless of fault, uh, everyone is covered by their PIP insurance up to $10,000.
Right? So, uh, now if you have caused an accident, your rates likely are going to go up or you’re going to be dropped. And if you have not caused the accident and you’re simply invoking your own PIP benefits, I’ve never seen somebody’s rates go up or be dropped simply for treating that way. Save one exception. I had a client, um, I think he’s, I think he’s a gypsy or something. I mean he had like five PIP claims and it was under some real cut rate insurance company, real bottom of the line, bottom barrel. Uh, and after he had filed like the fifth PIP claim against his insurance company, they dropped him. So unless you fall into that aberration type group, for most people, you’re just not going to see any type of raise in your rates or getting dropped by just simply filing a PIP claim when you’re not at fault for causing the car accident.
So then the next issue is what about when you, if you have to file an uninsured motorist claim against your own insurance company. And again, you can only file that uninsured motorist claim if you are not at fault for the accident. So let’s go through a scenario. A, you’re at a light somewhere. I mean, my office is in St. Petersburg, so let’s use St. Petersburg as the example. You’re rear-ended. You’re injured, you’ve invoked your PIP benefits, uh, and you’ve burned them out. Uh, the at fault driver didn’t have any insurance, which unfortunately is pretty common here in Florida. Um, and so you had to make an uninsured motorist claim against your own car insurance company and that situation, uh, unless you’ve got a huge claim that we’re talking big money, I mean, I don’t know, 50,000, 100,000 or above, I have not seen anyone either get dropped or their rates be raised as a result of that.
So again, to the husbands that asked those types of questions, just check out this video. There’s your answer. Now, if you’ve got a big claim, hundreds of thousands of dollars, like I said, over 50, uh, you might, you might incur some type of, um, some type of, uh, of increase in your rates. Uh, but all I can tell you is an insurance company can drop you or raise your rates at any time. And if they’re doing that because you’re injured and you’re making a claim against your own insurance policy, why do you want that company? Get rid of them. Find another company that’s going to insure you for the same. If not, you can probably shop it around and get [inaudible] and get a company for even less. So forget that company a, you shouldn’t even care about that. Get rid of them, move on, get a new company. Um, and so in my mind, it’s really not a big risk, uh, setting up any type of claim, either a PIP or making your own uninsured motorist claim because at the end of the day, it really shouldn’t be costing you any money off of your car insurance. So anyway, hopefully this answers the question as far as what happens. And again, in reality, boots on the ground, somebody that handles car accident cases day in and day out as a lot of communication with their clients, uh, that in reality, that’s what’s going on. So hopefully that answered your question about whether your insurance, your car insurance rates will be increased, or whether you’re, you will be dropped after setting up some type of car accident injury claim. Do you have any questions? Please contact us at St. Petersburg Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid and Douglas.
*The above has been transcribed by a third party service and has not been checked for accuracy.
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St. Petersburg Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas
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