20 Arizona Car Accident Questions, Answered

Hello, internet. It's Henry, personal injury attorney in Arizona. And here are 20 questions I get asked a lot about Arizona car accidents, insurance, and injury claims. And here are a few things I think you might need to know. And if you're in another state besides Arizona, you know, we're probably in the ballpark. So let's start off with number one. What is uninsured motorist coverage?

Uninsured motorist coverage or is a coverage on your own auto policy, right? Not the other drivers, your own auto policy that can help pay for your injuries when an uninsured driver causes a crash. Right now, this could include medical expenses, lost income, other injury damages, up to your limit, right? And

Arizona insurers, I think they do have to offer this, but check your policy. This is actually a pretty important thing. Basically, what happens is if somebody hits you, right? Like a normal auto accident, it's not your fault, you're minding your own business, somebody hits you, they don't have any insurance. Then if you have uninsured motorist coverage, your own policy can kick in and pay you compensation for the accident. It's very important. I highly recommend anybody.

Call their carrier and see if you have this policy coverage. If not, go get it. And it's often offered with question number two What is underinsured motorist coverage, right? This is UIM, where uninsured motorist coverage is And this helps when the other driver doesn't have enough insurance to cover your case, right? So let's say somebody hits you.

With a minimum policy. In Arizona, the minimum policy is $25,000 per person for auto insurance. And let's say your case, boy, you've got $25,000 in medical bills. So you've also got pain and suffering, and you've got other damages that are above that other person's limit. This is where your UIM underinsured motorist coverage can come in and make up the difference. So if you exhaust their policy.

You can reach out to your own insurance. Highly recommend everybody reaches out to their carrier. as soon as you see this video, to say, hey, do I have these coverages on? And if not, how much does it cost to get me? Usually you get a great bang for the buck, and these are very, very important protections. Tell your friends, tell your family. Question number three.

Arizona's minimum liability insurance. So we just kind of covered this, right? It's $25,000 per bodily injury to one person. This law was updated a couple years ago. $50,000 total for bodily injuries per accident, and $15,000 for property damage, right? So liability coverage helps pay cover claims when you're legally responsible for hurting somebody or damaging their property. It protects you financially, but it

Generally does not pay for your own injuries, right? If the damage exceeds your limits, you could owe the difference yourself. Right? MedPay, number four. MedPay, this is interesting. I get asked this. A lot of people don't even know they have this on their policy. Medpay is typically an optional auto coverage that can help pay your medical bills, right? So if regardless of who caused the accident, MedPay can say, hey, you've got.

$10,000 in medical payments, and that's based on your own insurance. So we'll start covering these bills while your claim is effectively pending. MedPay does have limits in coverage, and payments not necessarily immediate, but this is another thing when you talk about underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage. Ask your insurance provider about medical payment coverage and how it works. This is usually a pretty darn good deal for you.

Number five, full coverage. Okay, this is an interesting one. What does full coverage actually mean when people kick around full coverage? The easiest answer is ask your insurance company what your full coverage policy actually holds, right? Because it can be different based on what insurance company you have and what you're looking for. So collision generally covers vehicle damage from crashes, right? Comprehensive coverage.

Generally covers things like theft or hail, right? Or a big storm or hitting an animal on the side of the highway, hopefully not. But that's what comprehensive typically covers. Those coverages generally don't pay for your injuries. So a policy called full coverage might still lack uninsured motorist, underinsured motorist, and med-pay coverage. So

Check the actual coverage list on your Dec page and your insurance policy and reach out to your insurance company. They would love to hear from you, I'm sure. They would love to be like, hey, what else can we sell you? But MedPay, underinsured, and uninsured motorists are typically pretty darn good deals for you and they protect you. Extra protection is always good when we're talking about insurance. So that's a perfect segue into number six. Number six. What is a declarations page?

Typically for my clients, we always look at the Dec page and we try to get the Dec page from the other party as well. So this is the summary of your insurance policy. You usually list your vehicle, coverage types, when the coverage started, when it expires, dollar limits, deductibles, and of course policy dates, right? Like we just said. So it's a really good starting point for checking whether you have uninsured motorists, underinsured motorist, or med pay coverage.

But it doesn't contain every little like detail condition or exclusion, right? You're gonna want to pick up your full insurance package and get that. And just as a side note here, before we get to number seven, you know, there there are so many people that I talk to that don't know the insurance coverage they have, right? They get a new car or they get a new policy. And I'm like, well, what coverage do you have? And they're like, well, yeah, I've I've got good coverage, or I've got great coverage.

But very few people specifically know exactly what they're paying for. So if you're paying for the insurance company, right, to insure you, to protect you, to protect your things, make sure you know what you have and ask about those three things. It's so important. I might even repeat it one more time. Number seven, this is an interesting one, this is fun. Is leaving the scene of an accident, a felony in Arizona. a little bit of criminal law. So sometimes in accidents you have

A crossover with criminal law, right? So if you get hit with, let's say, an intoxicated driver or you know, there was a criminal speeding issue, you know, that can invoke the criminal system as well as the civil system, right? Like typically auto accident injury cases as you're working with the other party's insurance to try to get compensation for your injuries, those are civil claims. The criminal system is a different court system.

That effectively punishes somebody or tries to get a resolution in criminal court, whether it's probation, whether it's fines, it could even be jail, it could even be prison. but those are two separate. So sometimes one accident can invoke both, right? And in Arizona, Arizona law requires you to stop, right? Remain at the scene, provide the required information, and give, I believe what they call

Reasonable assistance to injured people. Unlawfully leaving can be a felony with like serious consequences. Like whenever the word felony is attached to anything, like that should get everybody's attention immediately. Stop. Find a great criminal defense lawyer because you're gonna need it. That's a serious, serious word. but unlawfully leaving the scene of an accident when somebody suffers an injury or dies is typically considered a felony in Arizona.

And even a crash involving only vehicle damage, if you leave the scene of it, can lead to a misdemeanor charge, right? So it at the end of the day, stop safely, get help. Like get help for everybody involved in an accident, regardless if it's your fault or somebody else's fault. Call 911, get an ambulance out there, get what you need out there to make sure everybody is protected. All right, we are up to number eight already. This is great.

What should I do if a hit and run driver hits me? Well, we just talked about hit and run. That's bad. That's bad, bad, bad. First, get somewhere safe and call for emergency help that you know you can. 911 immediately. Report the crash to the police and write down everything you remember about the vehicle, right? Like if you didn't get their license plate, It would be ideal if you did, though. It would be great to be able to go identify this person that caused damages to

your vehicle and maybe you. But write down everything that you can think of because there may be nearby camera footage. There could be a witness that could say, hey, you know, I know that car. That car's right down the road. So there are ways to kind of do our best to track this down. Right? You'll need evidence to kind of support this claim, but it typically starts with reporting this to your insurance, calling 911, and remembering everything you possibly can about actually what happened.

So this might be the most common question. Number nine. Number nine. How long does a car accident settlement take? I don't know. I can tell you generally, but for your case, I could tell you I don't know. It depends on your injuries, it depends on your treatment, it depends on the insurance. If there's a dispute in fault and they say, Well, wait a minute, you you broke way too fast, or you hit me, I didn't hit you, all this other stuff.

Can go into how a case settles. But if it's a relatively straightforward case where there's no issues on liability, somebody hit you, you went to the doctors, your attorney got all the medical bills and talked to you and got all the evidence relatively quick order. I think you can typically get these resolved in a couple months. If it's a bigger injury, if it's a bigger accident, it can go for years. And if a lawsuit comes into play, right, where you actually have to file it,

That can get extended even further, even though as soon as you file a lawsuit effectively, the court now starts setting dates, right, to keep cases moving forward and typically in a scheduling order. And that's good because you're looking for a better result than you were likely offered before you had to file that lawsuit. So long story short, there is no timeline, right? Like I can't look at a client and say, we'll be done in two months, or we'll be done in four months. It just depends on a lot of factors.

You work the case to the best result you can get for your client. And that's really the answer to it. 10. Okay, contingency fee. Okay, that's kind of fun. So contingency fee, what does contingency fee mean? And you know, this is this is pretty basic, right, for personal injury work. Contingency fee means that the attorney fee depends on the outcome, right? Usually as a percentage of whatever the attorney was able to recover.

So in Arizona, clearly the agreement must be in writing and signed by the client. It explains the percentage of the contingency fee, how it is calculated, what other fees affect the calculation, like costs, right? So attorney fees are typically different than attorney costs. And that should be outlined very clearly in your contingency fee agreement. This has been around kind of since the beginning of time for plaintiff lawyers. Like this is where you see the guys.

On the billboard or the TV ads, going no fee unless we win, no fee unless we win. Okay. Well, they're basically talking about contingency fee, and that's how these agreements are set up. So if the attorney does not get a recovery, then they don't have a percentage to take from the recovery. So they get zero, which means most attorneys only do contingency cases if they think there's a pretty darn good chance they can recover money for the client, which also means

They get to recover money for their law firm and be a hero. So read the agreement if you're hiring a personal injury attorney before you sign it. And don't be afraid to just ask questions about costs. Hey, what costs do you think are going to be in this case? What's your attorney fee? Does your attorney fee go up if we have to file a lawsuit? Does your attorney fee go up if we're in litigation? How does this work, right? The attorney's done this for a whole long time. You might have been in one accident. Don't be afraid.

To ask your lawyer questions. There are no stupid questions. Number 11, what is a demand letter? Okay, demand letter. This is effectively a statement from your attorney, ideally, if you've hired an attorney, that formally explains why you're seeking compensation and what you're asking the insurer to pay. It usually goes over liability. Hey, my client's not at fault, and here's why. Here's the evidence we have. Your client's responsible, your insured's responsible.

It goes over your injuries, your treatment, your medical bills, your lost income, and other damages that are supported by statements you make, what's happened in your lifestyle, and of course records, right? Because this is an evidence-based system. So an insurer might get a demand package, and usually the demand package comes with medical bills. And these things are these things are pretty big, right? Like on a small accident, it might be, you know, tiny.

But there are demand packages that might show up in a box for a really big case, right? These are really important. And there's a strategy about how you go and actually support the insurance adjuster's job in making the right decision, right? So this is where advocacy really comes into play. Like how do you position that demand letter in your demand package, which could be a couple pages, it could be a hundred pages, right? It all depends on the injury.

But this is where the magic of the lawyer comes in, right? You are starting to position the case formally in writing. And once you put something in writing in law, you cannot then take it back very easily. Very hard, very hard to do. All right. So number 12. Well, I think we covered that, right? Like so it's a demand package. You're saying, hey, this is what we want to settle the case effectively. Simple. So number 12.

What happens at a deposition? Okay, this is a great question. So not many cases get to a deposition stage. So in order to do a deposition, that means you've probably sent the demand package, the insurance company didn't accept it, right? And you're fighting about it. Whether you said, hey, we want a hundred thousand, the insurance company says, Well, we're only going to give you thirty thousand. Parties are pretty far apart, right? So what do we do? Well, we take it to court. We take it to court. So we file a lawsuit.

And we get into the box, as my old boss used to say when I was a prosecutor. We get into the box. We're going to the box. You know, we're going to try the case. Now, a trial is at the very, very, very end. Kind of at the beginning of the litigation process is a deposition. And this is a recorded testimony under oath, right? That's typically taken before trial and outside the courtroom, where lawyers can ask questions and you answer, and those answers can be used later in the case.

So you and your lawyer typically prepare for the process, but your job is to tell the truth, right? And that's why I tell you know clients all the time is when you've got the truth on your side, right, you're in a pretty good position. And and that's basically universal for any law case in the history of the world, right? You just tell the truth. You typically there there's nothing better than ruining a perfectly good case when somebody starts embellishing or making false statements, just the way it is.

so your lawyer can prepare you for the depot. You do it. If a question's unclear, you can ask for clarification. But it's a very standard process. The attorneys that do depositions are typically very, very good at them, right? But you can't go wrong as long as you tell the truth. It's your truth. Remember, you were the one in the accident. You were the one with the hurt back or the broken leg. You're the one that went through this. And this is typically one of your first times to go on formal record and tell your tale.

gap insurance. Okay, this is a good one. Gap insurance. so let's say after, how do I explain this one? So after a covered total loss, right, standard auto insurance generally pays based on your car's value, right? Which may be less than your remaining loan balance, right? Gap protection can effectively help you with that difference depending on how the contract is set up, right?

So some gap products are insurance, others are agreements to waive certain debt, right? If you finance or lease, check effectively what you have. It's willing i it it's worth it to reach out to your insurance company and say, Hey, you know, just in case, you know, are there any gap coverages available or what do you guys think about it? Pr pretty simple stuff.

Fourteen, fourteen already. All right. Number fourteen, why might I have to repay medical benefits from my settlement? okay. This is a good one. So if let's say Medicare, AHCCCS, and that's Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System, or certain health plans paid crash-related medical bills, they could have rights to recover some of those payments.

From your settlement, right? These are terms like reimbursement or subrogation, subrogation typically. The rules are a little bit different depending on effectively who paid, what the plan documents say, and the applicable laws, right? These repayment claims need to be checked really carefully, including whether they're enforceable and whether reductions are available. They can affect what you take home. So this is a great thing.

to talk to your attorney about, especially if you have a government-sponsored health plan or there's some other type of lien on your medical payments. 15, okay, this is a this is an interesting one. Punitive damages, right? Like we talked about this a lot in law school. You know, it does come up though in real life practice because most injury damages compensate you for your losses, right? So medical expenses, lost income.

pain, suffering, right? Punitive damages are punishment damages, right? And they specifically try to punish wrongful conduct and discourage it from happening again. Arizona sets a pretty high bar to prove, right, if you're eligible for punitive and if you are, how you effectively can try to go and recover those.

A serious injury alone doesn't establish the ability to seek punitive damages, right? It's much more about the defendant's conduct conduct and their state of mind. So if if you think you're in a punitive situation, talk to your lawyer about it. you know, it it's actually somewhat more complicated than a 30-second explanation on a YouTube video. But maybe we'll shoot a big one and only talk about punitives.

So 16. can a hospital put a lien on my settlement? Well, kind of. Yeah. Arizona law allows certain healthcare providers to claim payment from some injury recoveries through a lien, right? Like the these there's plenty of laws out there talking about liens, who can file them, how they can file them. There's some pretty important restrictions as well, and it can depend on your actual insurance coverage, right? Provider con contracts.

And legal requirements. So these liens don't necessarily automatically attach to every type of insurance payment, but liens are very important. It's something that you can't screw up on the lawyer side. Lawyers should know about the liens relatively early. You there are many ways to figure out if you actually have a lien on the account. So if you happen to be going through an auto accident injury case and you think there's a lien issue, it's worth a quick double check with your lawyer so you guys can work through it together.

but liens liens are a whole nother subject matter. I appreciate the question, but it's a whole nother subject matter.

That's a nother whole nother animal. This is a this is a good one. This is a good one. Mediation. So number 17. What happens at mediation? What is this magic word? Mediation. Well, let's go mediate. You know, let's go, let's go mediate. Okay. Mediations are actually a lot of fun. I personally think they're more fun than trials, right? You know, trials are very serious, and that's the end of the road. A mediation, you've got a little bit of room to test the other side.

Right, as they're testing you with a third party. So basically, a mediation is a settlement discussion with a neutral person that helps the parties look for an agreement. So we've gotten a dispute, right? We've got a lawsuit filed, typically, and we get into mediation and we pitch our case, and the mediator is the one who effectively listens to the strengths and weaknesses, the costs, the risks of continuing the case.

All of these different factors, right? And the mediator will effectively help you try to find an agreement. The mediator ordinarily doesn't necessarily decide who wins or force somebody to set to accept an offer or settle a case, right? Like you have to accept this right now. No, no, it's not the not the mediator's role. But the mediator can you know flush out things that

Maybe the parties aren't appreciating. And if you can flush out equal things on each side, you get a little closer to a resolution. Now we're talking, right? Now we're talking, right? You got to get into the right arena to actually get a settlement done. And sometimes that just takes the help of a third party. And the mediators I've worked with in the past are absolutely excellent. And I've had very good experiences in all the mediations I've done personally. 18. Okay. This is a good one for Arizona. This is a good one for Arizona.

Can I recover money if the crash was partly my fault? Okay, okay. in an ordinary, you know, negligence case, yes, Arizona uses comparative fault, right? Basically pure comparative fault, meaning your damages are reduced by your percentage of responsibility. So if you were found to be 20% at fault, then what you can recover, right, your damages are generally reduced by 20%.

before other you know applicable deductions or limits. So being partly responsible doesn't automatically eliminate your claim. Fault still has to be established, but different rules can apply, of course, to intentional conduct and other conduct. But generally speaking, that is comparative fault. So yes, so even if it's a little bit your fault, you can still recover.

19, okay, this is a good one. Loss of consortium. Loss of consortium. So think about this, right? An injury can affect more than the person physically hurt. It's more than losing your ability to work. It's more than your medical bills, and it's more than your personal pain, right? Loss of consortium addresses harm to a qualifying family relationship, companionship, affection, support.

Right. Arizona recognizes claims by spouses and in some circumstances parents and children. So basically if you're hurt in an accident, there may be a claim for loss of consortium.

You know, if you got a wife, right? It's just it's a little bit tricky. It's a little bit tricky. So talk to your attorney, but that's effectively what it is. It's harm to a qualifying family relationship that you've that you just can't, you know, can't do. or at least for now, right? Number 20. we're already at the end. Look at look at how much fun this was. my top twenty questions. What if the

Insurer's total loss offer seems too low. Okay, this isn't my favorite question, but let's let's let's hit it. one as for the valuation report, right? And check your vehicle's trim, mileage options, and condition. Especially have recent photos of it. It's great to be able to see. Compare similar vehicles in your local market, and you can effectively build your case, right? For a covered total loss under your policy, you know, Arizona.

with a deductible potentially applying. but if the number seems wrong at the end of the day, with the insurance company trying to give you less money than what you think your car's worth, basically you got to build up your case and say, no, no, no. What what how are you valuing this vehicle? Because my value, fair market value is different. And oftentimes you should be able to work it out.

All right. That is 20, that is 20 answers. So some of those were very vague on purpose, right? Because they're complicated legal topics. They are. They just take more than 30 or 45 seconds to get through. And this is general information. It's a general discussion about personal injury issues. Now, if you are suffering any of this stuff in Arizona, I'd be happy to talk you through it. And I can actually dig into any of these topics in quite great depth. In fact, if I did that

On this video, I think half of the viewers probably would be sleeping by now. And maybe I should do another kind of very raw legal video to put people to sleep and just put it like bedtime stories by a lawyer. And we start talking about, you know, punitive damages and comparative fault and case law. But you know, I hope you stayed awake. I hope you watched the video. And again, if you are in a situation like this in Arizona and you do want to

Seek counsel through an attorney, I'd be happy to sit down and talk to you. Consultations are always free. My door is always open. All right. All right, internet. Thank you for joining and we will see you next time.