Frequently Asked Questions

What evidence do you collect for a herniated disc to get compensation in a personal injury claim or lawsuit?

What effect do drugs have on people’s driving abilities?

What driving precautions should I take if the weather is bad?

In Virginia, like in most states, a car insurance company whose insured driver causes damage to your car normally must pay for restoring your vehicle to its pre-accident condition. Virginia also requires that an insurance company pay for a comparable rental car during the time that your car is being repaired. You generally have a choice about the repair facility for your vehicle. For instance, if you drive an expensive car, you might want to have the work done at a certified body shop. That is your right. Also, you can let the adjuster know that you do not want to use refurbished parts on your car. Another issue that often comes up is that of the rental car. While your vehicle is being repaired, the insurance company must provide you with a comparable rental car. The rental vehicle must be made available until your own car is finished being repaired or the insurance company has made you an offer on your vehicle.

As your Virginia injury lawyer, I can help get the liability insurance carrier to tell us what’s going on in the case and figure out what your options are after a car wreck in which you were hurt.  If the problem is that the insurance claim representative is dodging your calls, then my staff and I can bug them enough to push them to get on the phone with me and tell me as your representative what’s going on.  Usually after a car wreck that’s not your fault, the main thing that you need from the other driver’s insurance company is to get them to deal with your vehicle’s property damage and rental car immediately.  Normally, this happens in a fairly smooth process but sometimes it can be a big hassle for you to get the at-fault motorist’s insurer to call you back.
Sometimes they won’t call you back because they are supposedly trying to investigate to figure out if their driver was really at fault or even had coverage with them.  Often this is the result of the other driver failing to be responsive to their insurance company as far as reporting the accident.  If this is the insurance company’s game, then usually your best avenue is to ask your own insurance to temporarily pay you on your property damage to fix your car and let them get their money back from the person who ran into you when the dust settles.  There can be a couple of tricky aspects of this in that you may have to pay some money for your deductible on your insurance to handle the property damage, and if you do not have rental car coverage, then you may not be able to get them to pay for it directly, but will have to do so out of your own pocket.  Ultimately, even if you have to pay for the rental car yourself, we can usually get you reimbursed from the at-fault insurance company, once it’s confirmed that their client was insured with them and was at fault.
About the editors: The motto at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharplaw firm is simple -“All we do is injury law.” We hope you were able to find the answer to your injury query. If not, please review our Virginia Accident Lawyer FAQ Library for additional information. If you’d like to speak to an actual attorney about your potential injury claim for free, please contact our office at (833) 997-1774.