Expert: Richard Hixenbaugh - 9/18/2010

Question
I was in a a car accident with someone else documented blatant recklessness. I submitted my claim in a timely manner. The insurance company send me a counter offer. i questioned the fairness of the counter offer and they demanded that I send additional information regarding confirmation of time off from work and a letter from my Doctor confirming that the time off was warranted. The insurance company had sent me a letter at the beginning saying that they will pay for the medical expenses. Because they say that they did not get the Doctor's letter and employer verification of sick time before the time limit which was less than a month ago. They say they will pay nothing, not even the medical bills. Am I doomed?  

Answer
Hi Diane,

What you are referring to is called the "Statute of Limitations". This is a state law in every state although it may be a different length in each state. Typically a statute of limitations will be 2 years from the date of the incident.

The statute of limitations is the maximum lenth of time a person has to file a law suit if they are unable to reach an agreement with the person thay have a conflict with.

In your case you have a conflict with the at fault driver and his insurance company over the settlement of your injury claim. Once the time period of the statute has passed, you can no longer file a law suit to have a court order the other party to pay you a certain amount of money. Since in your case the time period has passed and you can no longer file a law suit the insurance company has no reason to pay you because there is nothing you can do about it.

It is possible that if your state has a "Bad Faith Claim Handling" statute that requires an insurance company to notify you in writing that there is a statute of limitations and what it is and they did not do so, you may be able to reopen your claim. However to do this you would have to speak with an attorney that specialized in bad faith claims against insurance companies.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh