Car owners are required by law to carry insurance almost everywhere in the world. It makes sense because if you get into an accident with someone that doesn’t have the money to cover damages/medical bills and who isn’t insured, you would have to come up with that money on your own.

Personal injury protection (PIP) is a type of auto insurance that provides compensation for damages, lost wages, medical bills, and other costs associated with car accidents.

The way personal injury protection helps you is by allowing you to file a claim with your own insurance company to get coverage for damages and losses from a car accident.

Since PIP is not affected by fault, you can expect to receive payments shortly after your accident. This helps out tremendously to take care of yourself, any medical bills, lost wages, and more while your lawyer negotiates with the other parties and insurance companies.

What Does PIP Cover?

Personal injury protection car insurance covers a number of different damages the policyholder might suffer including:

  • Medical Bills: PIP will pay for 100% of a policyholder’s necessary medical bills. Everything from doctor’s appointments, x-rays, surgeries, ambulances, treatments, medications, nursing fees, and more.
  • Death Damages: should a policy holder pass away as a result of a car crash, personal injury protection insurance could potentially pay for the funeral, burial costs, and the medical bills and expenses incurred prior to the policyholder passing away.
  • Lost Wages: after receiving proof that the policyholder has lost income, personal injury protection insurance will reimburse up to 80% off the lost income they had to miss because of the car accident.

Because there’s no dollar amount pre-set for PIP coverage, it is often offered in increments of $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000.

Whichever amount you choose and purchase would be available to cover each person that has gotten injured in your car.

So, if you had two friends in your car and you’ve all got injured from an accident, each person in your car would receive up to $5,000 of insurance coverage, if that’s the package that you purchased.

What is a PIP Settlement?

Insurance companies often try to protect their bottom lines. They’re for-profit companies and it makes perfect sense to do that. However, it sometimes comes at a cost to the client.

If you’ve filed a PIP claim with your insurance company and got offered a settlement that does not cover all of your medical bills and lost wages, you should contact a car accident attorney to help you negotiate a fair settlement. Your attorney would carefully calculate the perceived value of your losses and negotiate according to the limits of your policy to get you a higher settlement.

Is an Attorney Necessary if You Have PIP?

An attorney might be needed when the policyholder does not get fully compensated for the damages they’ve endured. An insurance provider might go to the length of denying valid claims if it had a large effect on the bottom line, and there have been cases where this has happened before.

An experienced attorney would be more than ready to fight the insurance providers on your behalf and secure your deserved compensation.