What If the Insurance Company Denies Your Claim—What’s the Next Step?

What If the Insurance Company Denies Your Claim—What’s the Next Step?

You are driving down Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa when, out of nowhere, you are hit by another vehicle. This situation unfortunately happens every day in Tampa. So after already dealing with a potential injury, car damage, etc., when an insurance company denies your claim, it's natural to feel frustrated and unsure of what to do next. As attorney Mike Hancock from Tampa, Florida, explains, many people assume they can simply explain what happened and convince the insurance adjuster to reverse the decision. Unfortunately, once liability has been denied, resolving the dispute often requires much more than another phone call.

Why Do Insurance Companies Deny Car Accident Claims?

If the insurance company denies your claim after a car accident despite the other person clearly being at fault, don't be so surprised. Insurance companies, like Allstate or Progressive, don't always accept fault based solely on your version of events. In some cases, the other driver may immediately deny responsibility.

In others, the other driver may initially admit fault at the scene but later change their story when speaking with their insurance company. These conflicting accounts can make proving liability much more complicated than most people expect.

A Denied Insurance Claim Doesn't Mean You Can't Make a Recovery

The good news is that if the insurance company denies your claim, it is not necessarily the end of your case. Strong evidence can make all the difference.

Police reports often identify witnesses who saw the collision, and those independent witnesses can provide valuable testimony about what actually happened. Dash cam footage can also offer clear visual proof when drivers disagree about who caused the crash.

In addition, many modern vehicles contain electronic data recorders, commonly referred to as a vehicle's "black box." These devices may capture information such as speed, braking, steering, and other critical data leading up to the collision.

This type of evidence can expose inconsistencies in the other driver's account and strengthen your personal injury claim. Even when, at first, an insurance company denies your claim, presenting objective evidence may lead to a different outcome. If the insurance company denies your claim despite the available evidence, filing a lawsuit may become the appropriate next step to pursue the compensation you deserve.

How an Experienced Attorney Can Help If The Insurance Company Denies Your Claim

An experienced Tampa insurance disputes lawyer understands how to investigate denied insurance claims and gather the evidence needed to prove liability. From obtaining police reports and interviewing witnesses to securing dash cam footage and vehicle data, an attorney can build a compelling case on your behalf.

Your attorney also handles communications with the insurance company, challenges unsupported claim denials, and, when necessary, files a lawsuit to protect your rights. Through discovery and sworn testimony, additional evidence often comes to light that helps establish fault and maximize the compensation available for your injuries and losses.

Take Action Today: Protect Your Rights After an Insurance Claim Denial

If the insurance company denies your claim after a car accident, don't assume you have no options. An experienced Tampa personal injury attorney can evaluate your case, gather the evidence needed to challenge the denial, and fight for the compensation you deserve. Call Hancock Injury Attorneys at 813-915-1110 today to discuss your situation and learn about your next steps.

Video Transcript

I was injured in a car accident, and now the other driver and their insurance company are saying that they weren't at fault. So, what's the next step? So, quite honestly, the next step is you're going to have to have an attorney represent you in your claim for personal injury. You honestly are not going to be able to talk to the insurance company and convince them that it wasn't their fault.

If they have already told you that they have denied the claim, the next step is basically to retain an attorney to bring a personal injury claim so that the attorney can obtain the evidence necessary to prove them wrong. You're not going to be able to do that.

The evidence that we have available to us starts with the police report. The police report will often have names of witnesses who talk to the police officer. Those witnesses could also know of other witnesses not on the police report. And the witnesses, especially third-party witnesses who have no connection to either driver, are so important in any determination of who's at fault.

So, it starts with the people on the police report. It starts with the police report itself because the police officer goes out and talks to the person. He would have already, he or she would have already talked with you at the scene, gotten your version of the accident, talked with the other driver, gotten their version. Usually we see two different situations arise.

Situation one is where the other driver, from the very first moment, says it wasn't my fault, or they talk to the police officer at the scene. They admit fault and then later on talk to their insurance adjuster in their insurance company, and they basically change their story. Occasionally in cases, we also have dash cam footage.

I just recently talked to some clients who were involved in an intersection collision. They were on a major road, two lanes going each way, controlled by a light, and luckily they had a dash cam on their dash. The dash cam showed that they had clearly a green light as they entered the intersection, and it showed the other person running a red light from their left.

And even though there was dash cam footage, the person at the scene, the other driver, told the police officer they had the green light. Of course, our client was saying to the police officer they had the green light. Because of the dash cam video, we were able to provide that to the other person's insurance company, who had denied that their insured was at fault until we provided them with that dash cam video.

So there's dash cam video, there's witness statements. There's one other thing that we typically get, and that is electronic data recorder information. That's basically not many people know it, but every passenger car has a black box, just kind of like a jet airliner has, you know, the black box data recorder.

Every car has essentially the same thing, and it records data such as speed when an event happens. So when you're involved in a car accident, it triggers an event on that electronic data recorder, and it automatically records data from 5 seconds leading up to that crash until 5 seconds after. And it records things like speed, braking, and turning. It records g-forces of the accident. So we can often determine who is at fault and whether someone's version of the accident is false or true.

We had another case in which our client was in a multi-car collision. Happened to be a five-car rear-end collision. That's how fast the person in the very back was driving. Fast enough to cause four other cars to be pushed into each other. Our client was right in the middle, and our client swore to me at the very beginning that he was at a complete stop and had rear-ended himself before getting pushed into two cars in front of him.

For whatever reason, our client was severely injured at the scene. He was taken away by ambulance, and the other people involved in the crash said he caused it, and not that they caused it. We were able to get his electronic data recorder information. We were able to show that he had been at a complete stop when he got hit from behind with such force that it pushed him forward.

And then another event took place in which he was getting pushed into the car in front of him also got recorded on the electronic data. So with that information, we went from a situation where people were bringing claims against him to negating those claims and us being able to prove that the person behind him had caused the accident.

Oftentimes we get situations where the other person's insurance company denies that they were at fault and denies your claim. I would probably say realistically in about 50% of cases, the person who rear-ends you gets out and says, "Hey, I'm so sorry. It was all my fault." And ends up telling the police officer and their insurance company that.

But in the other maybe 40 to 50% of claims, those people aren't as truthful as they should be. And that's when you really need to reach out to an attorney who can gather up all this evidence and present the claim on your behalf. And if the insurance company still doesn't want to accept the claim, at that point, we have the option, and you have the option of telling us, yes, go ahead and file a lawsuit on my behalf to make sure that I get fully compensated as a result of the injuries I sustained in this accident caused by this other person.

And oftentimes when we have the opportunity to file suit, have them testify under oath, have me or another attorney in my office take the fault party's deposition, we can make it very clear that they were the ones who caused the acts, along with all the other evidence we gather in the case. Answer to the question: What if the other insurance companies denied my claim? The simple answer is you're going to need an attorney to help you so that you can prove that it was not your fault. It was the other person's fault.

I'm Mike Hancock with Hancock Injury Attorneys. We're located in Tampa. We represent people involved in car accidents all across the Tampa Bay region and all across Florida.

If you have any questions about the denial of your personal injury claim, please give us a call. I'd be happy to give you a free consultation, answer any questions you may have, and look forward to representing you in the future.

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