There are a lot of insurance companies who will promote their service in a way that tells you they will save you money. However many of these use this as bait to lure you so that you become customers, and start making them more money. When it comes the time to file a claim, there is a host of paperwork that needs to be filled out, red tape to try to muddle through, and a host of other requirements that simply make it far too difficult to actually get the payout.

Often times the insurance company simply will not pay out as much as they should, and will only fork over a nominal fee that doesn\’t even come close to covering the damages that they should be covering. Here is what to do if you are forced to dispute your car insurance claim:

1. Contract an independent appraisal company or agent to come and give your car an evaluation. Of course using the independent appraiser means that the evaluation is not influenced by any insurance company, providing you with an honest evaluation.

2. When the appraisal has been completed, get the appraiser to furnish a copy of the report to yourself and the insurance company.

3. To avoid the officialdom of arbitration, it\’s much better if you are able to mediate the entire dispute. By hiring any mediator to go over the appraisal report, you can learn the most beneficial and simplest way in which to settle your claim dispute. This will be in the form of unofficial advice detailing how best to finalise the case. The benefit to you in using a mediator is that the information you are given is purely unofficial, which means you don\’t have to follow it if you don\’t want to.

4. If mediation is unsuccessful, arbitration is the next step to take. In this case an attorney would deal with the dispute, meaning that would have to hand over any form of evidence you have acquired, to your attorney. You may need to find witnesses, and you will also need to present the report of the independent appraiser. In some ways the downside, but often the better outcome, by using arbitration to settle your insurance claim, you will be legally bound by the decision of the arbitrator.

5. Often the insurance companies will simply refuse to pay out the adjusted insurance, even after the arbitrator has ruled that they need to do so. That is when you will need to take the insurance company to court and sue them to pay out the correct amount. As you would have the assessment from the mediator, the ruling by the arbitrator, most judges are going to award your entitlements. You need to make sure that you hire a great lawyer if you decide that you are going to take the insurance company to court. Your insurance company is going to have a sharp legal team working for them, whose only role is to get the insurers out of having to pay up.

Disputing any car insurance claim, is likely to be an expensive and time consuming process. You could have to contract a mediator, an arbitrator, and an attorney to take it to court. You will need to make sure that any amount you are likely to receive through the courts is going to cover all of your costs.

Author Bio: If you live in California and looking for car insurance online, be sure to check out author\’s web site on California car insurance and how to get California car insurance quotes.

Category: Automotive
Keywords: car insurance claim, auto insurance, car insurance claim dispute