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Insurance is a complicated business, and most people have very little knowledge on how it operates. Most of the time, you don’t even think much about your insurance until you receive your bill. Unfortunately, insurance is a fact of life, and you need to know your rights if you intend to get what you need after you get into an accident. The following are some key points to remember when incurring insurance.
The Right to Speed
By law, an insurance company must respond to your claim within a certain period of time. If the company doesn’t respond promptly by either paying or investigating your claim, they will be hit with a stiff fine. Even the best New York car accident attorney wouldn’t be able to stop the legal mess the company would make for itself if it were that negligent.
The Right to Payment
Receiving the benefit of your auto insurance is a right you enjoy because of the premiums you pay. You will be very likely to receive payment within a few days of filing your claim and having it examined by an adjuster. The fact of the matter is, despite the reputation many insurance companies have for delaying payments, they’re operating under strict legal guidelines. One of those guidelines is that they have limited time frame to deny your claim. If they do, you need to understand the very reason why it has been denied.
The Right to Understand
In most cases, your claim will be paid within a fairly short time period if you file it correctly. However, not all claims are going to be paid, such as if you were at liable for the accident. In a situation of that nature, you would receive a letter explaining the exact reason or reasons why your benefit won’t be paid. In some cases, you’ll still receive a partial payment, and this will also be explained.
The Right to Continuing Coverage
By law, there are very few situations under which an insurance company can summarily deny you continuing coverage. Since you are legally required to keep up a policy, it’s in the insurer’s best interests to allow your policy to continue. In many cases, auto insurance companies will even forgive an accident on your record after a set amount of time has passed. Ultimately, one claim won’t stain your record enough to make you untouchable to car insurance companies.