When you are in a car collision and you are hurt, immediately you will be dealing with several new people in your life. The lawyer, the doctors, and the insurance adjusters. Several of them sometimes.
The number and different roles of insurance adjusters can vary depending on the insurance company that you are working with. Here is a basic listing of the insurance adjusters you will deal with when you are involved in a crash and their respective roles.
1. First Party Insurance Adjusters. These adjusters are from your own insurance company. They are supposed to be on your side.
Personal Injury Protection Adjuster: This adjuster is from your own insurance company and they help administer your PIP policy provisions. Sometimes they are called medpay adjusters or first party medical adjusters. They collect your medical bills and records from the crash and make payment as allowed under the medical pay provisions of your car insurance. In Utah, the medical pay provisions are called “personal injury protection” benefits (“PIP”), but other states call them Medpay or first party no-fault medical payments. In order for a Utah PIP adjuster to make payments, the medical bills and medical treatment must be reasonable bills and necessary treatment. Sometimes your own PIP adjuster will deny payment if the adjuster believes the medical treatment is not related to the crash, or that the bills are not reasonable. Utah Code Ann. 31A-22-306 to 309 govern Utah PIP matter.
Property Adjusters: This adjuster deals solely with the property damage caused to your car during the crash. Ultimately the at fault party will reimburse your insurance carrier for the money they fronted to you to pay for your car damage. The property adjuster may also deal with damage caused to buildings or personal property destroyed in the car. They are not just limited to car damage.
2. Liability Adjusters. These adjusters are not on your side. They work for the insurance company who insured the offending car who hurt you and caused your property damage.
Bodily Injury Adjuster. A BI adjuster deals solely with personal physical injury that their insured caused someone else. They are well trained in reading medical records and making determinations that injuries are, or are not related to the car wreck. They commonly seek prior medical records to make determinations whether any pre existing injuries were aggravated by the crash, or whether they are new injuries. They also determine back wage loss, lost future wages and lost earning capacity claims.
Private Investigators. Insurance companies often employ private investigators to watch you and see how injured you really are. Further, you should just expect that all social media is being watched. Count on it.
Further, the at fault person will have his own PIP adjuster and Property adjuster, but you will see them as they work doing the same stuff your first party adjusters are doing. Basically, each time a wreck happens, each person involved in the crash generally have insurance. And the crash will produce the assignment of a Bodily Injury adjuster, a Property adjuster and a PIP adjuster for each person involved in the crash.
Dealing with the maze of the insurance world unrepresented by an attorney is hazardous. Attorney Jacob S. Gunter deals with insurance adjusters daily and knows the intricacies of the insurance worlds. Call Jacob to discuss your car accident case today. Free consultation and you don’t pay anything unless you receive compensation. (801) 373-6345. www.gunterinjurylaw.com. www.provolawyers.com.