The person that purchases an automobile policy has made a contract with the insurance company. Consequently, he or she should follow the terms that have been stated in that purchased policy.
Who should the policyholder notify, after becoming involved in an accident?
Each such policyholder has agreed to contact one of 2 different people. He or she could contact a personal insurance agent. Alternately, the same policyholder or their personal Injury Lawyers in Red Deer could get in touch with the insurance company’s claims office.
Those policyholders that choose to contact their insurance agent need to take one additional step. Each of them ought to ask that same agent to share the information in the policyholder’s report with the claims department. In addition, the agent should get asked to confirm the fact that the mentioned information was given to the claims department.
After making that request, policyholders should not assume that the agent has taken the requested action. Instead, each of them should stand prepared to act, themselves, in the absence of a confirmation. That action needs to take the form of a formal report, one that has been made to the claims department.
Legal rights of the insurance company, if one of its own policyholders has submitted a claim for compensation
• That company has the right to seek access to the policyholder’s medical records and work records.
• That company has the right to seek subrogation, i.e. a payment, if the claimant/policyholder has obtained money from any responsible 3rd party.
• That company has sound reason to expect the policyholder’s cooperation, as it investigates the submitted claim.
• The company’s final right concerns an inspection. It has the right to inspect the claimant’s vehicle.
Information that a policyholder should not share with his or her own insurance company, even after submitting a claim for compensation
All policyholders’ list of obligations lacks the mention of credit records. The policyholders’ credit records should remain private. No insurance company has a legal right to seek such private information.
Policyholders’ understanding of their obligations should include an appreciation for which medical records have to be shared with their own insurance company. The shared information from the policyholder’s physician should relate to the accident for which a claim has been made.
In other words, insurance companies have no right to receive detailed information from the claimant’s/policyholder’s medical history, during the many years prior to the reported accident. Of course, that same information could get mentioned in a form. If a form seeking such information were given to the claimant, then he or she should take the proper action. That action would entail crossing out the source of any private information, such as facts from the credit records, or facts from an earlier medical history.