GEICO Auto Insurance Claims

Chicago Lawyers Skilled in Car Accident Cases

If you are injured in a car accident, you may face significant medical bills and a need to take time off from work. People who have the appropriate coverage can file a first-party claim with their own insurer. However, you can also file a third-party claim with the other driver’s insurer or sue the other driver, which triggers a duty to defend and indemnify for the other driver’s liability coverage insurer. If you are concerned about a GEICO auto insurance claim, you should consult an experienced Chicago car accident attorney. Call Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca for guidance on your options.

GEICO Auto Insurance Claims

If GEICO is your insurer, you can contact the company to start the insurance claims process for first-party claims. When a car is wrecked in a crash, GEICO can schedule a time to bring it in or send a damage adjuster to where the car is located. You can choose any repair shop for the damage to be repaired, but GEICO also has its own program that provides a written lifetime guarantee if you take the car to one of its facilities. The adjuster can evaluate the damage and provide an estimate. When you have rental reimbursement coverage, GEICO can set you up with a rental car to use while the vehicle is being repaired. After GEICO investigates the accident, it will send you money that covers the car repairs, minus a deductible.

If you believe that another driver was at fault, and they have GEICO, you should consult an attorney before talking to an adjuster. This is because Illinois follows the rule of modified comparative negligence. The other party’s insurer will look for ways that you were at fault to reduce or avoid paying your damages, even when the other party’s fault is clear. The insurer for the other party will investigate to determine who was at fault, and it is important that somebody be investigating on your behalf as well. Evidence can be lost in a short amount of time after an accident, making it difficult to reconstruct just what happened and who was at fault for the collision.

When you sue another driver who is insured as they should be under the law, the claim will go to that person’s insurer as a third-party claim. All drivers in Illinois are supposed to have bodily injury liability insurance. This type of insurance pays for injuries that you cause to another driver if you are at fault in a crash. The bodily injury coverage that you bought as part of your liability coverage does not cover your own medical costs, but only those of other drivers and passengers.

The expenses that you can file against someone else’s GEICO bodily injury liability insurance include bills for your hospitalization, medical care, lost income, and other out-of-pocket expenses. Often, people who are catastrophically injured are left unable to work or unable to work in the same type of job. You can recover these as damages from an at-fault party’s bodily liability insurance.

Generally, when you sue another person for causing a car crash, the primary theory under which you will pursue damages is negligence. This means showing that the other driver owed you a duty, the other driver breached this duty, causation, and actual damages. A breach of the duty to use reasonable care while driving could involve speeding, tailgating, weaving through traffic, disobeying traffic signals, drunk driving, fatigued driving, aggressive driving, or texting while driving.

Seek Assistance from a Chicago Attorney Following a Car Crash

Even if another driver is cited for violating a safety law, you should consult an attorney before giving a statement to the other driver’s insurer. Statements that you make can ultimately undermine your case and your ability to recover your total damages. If you are concerned about making a GEICO auto insurance claim, you should consult an experienced Chicago attorney. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, we also represent people in Aurora, Springfield, Champaign, Rockford, and Quincy, as well as other communities in Cook, Kane, Sangamon, Champaign, Winnebago, and Adams Counties. You can call us at 312-724-5846, or contact us online, for a free consultation.