Auto Accident Claims Process With Travelers Insurance
In this article, we will talk about the Travelers insurance claims process and what you should do after a car accident. Of course, ensuring your safety after a crash is the most important step to take after a car accident. However, after that, your next concern may be filing a claim with the insurance company—either with your own insurance or the at-fault driver’s.
The insurance claims process can be challenging, and you may realize it’s difficult to get proper compensation without legal counsel. That's where we can help you.
Our Orlando car accident lawyers handle all types of motor vehicle injury cases, and we understand the questions you have. Call us anytime at 321-LAWSUIT for a free case evaluation.
If you choose to work with our law firm, there are no upfront costs. Also, we don't charge our clients interest on case costs. We strive to put as much money in your pocket as possible.
Step-by-Step Process for Filing a Travelers Insurance Claim
When you're bringing a claim for injuries, the process is very similar for all insurance companies, and Travelers is no exception. The process involves making a case for liability. In other words, you need to be able to show that the other driver—the driver carrying the Travelers auto insurance policy—was at fault.
Additionally, you need to be able to demonstrate your injuries and financial losses. This part of the process involves communicating your damages to the insurance adjusters and providing them with evidence. Here's how the process typically goes.
Step 1: Start a Claim
When you work with our law firm, we will reach out to the Travelers claims department and let them know we're representing you. After that, they will begin communicating directly with us for the duration of the personal injury claims process.
Step 2: Provide Information Available
The next step in our process is to provide the adjuster at Travelers with things like the police report, photos and videos of the accident, and/or statements from witnesses. We can also provide them with any medical records we have. For example, you may have gone to the emergency room immediately after the crash, and these records may be available.
Step 3: Medical Treatment
The next phase of the process involves you getting the medical treatment you need to get you back on your feet. Typically, we wait until you have reached sufficient improvement such that we understand the full extent of your injuries. You only get one chance at a personal injury claim, and you don't want to settle your case and then find out later that your injuries are worse than you originally thought.
Step 4: Provide Medical Records and Evidence of Medical Treatment
Next, we will gather all your medical records and bills. This might include records of all your past treatment, as well as any treatment or surgical recommendations your doctors have given you.
Step 5: Demand for Payment
Once we have gathered the information we need to establish liability and damages, we will prepare a demand for payment. Sometimes, we call this a "demand letter." We will then send all of that information to the Travelers insurance adjuster, along with a demand for payment.
Step 6: Evaluation
The Travelers insurance adjuster will review our demand, and typically they will respond within 30 days. They have three options when they respond to our demand letter:
- Accept the demand and pay the amount requested
- Deny the demand and make no offers to pay
- Provide a counteroffer that is lower than our demand amount
Usually, Travelers insurance company will provide us with a counteroffer, rather than accepting or denying the demand. This begins the process of negotiation.
Step 7: Settle the Case or File a Lawsuit
If we can reach a settlement agreement with the insurance adjuster at Travelers, they will have you sign a release of claims. This basically means you agree to accept money in return for giving up the right to bring a claim against them in the future for the same incident. Once you sign a release, they will typically get a check for payment to us within 20-30 days.
If we can't reach a settlement with Travelers, the only option left is to file a lawsuit and push the claim into litigation. This begins the formal legal process. The case could settle at any time during litigation, or it could go to trial in front of a jury.
Types of Insurance Coverage After a Florida Auto Accident
After you get into an auto accident, there will likely be several different types of insurance coverage available to cover things like property damage and injuries. For property damage, the at-fault driver probably has property damage liability (PDL) coverage. Florida requires $10,000 minimum PDL for every driver, and it covers damage the driver causes to another driver's vehicle.
For injuries, the most common types of coverage are personal injury protection (PIP), bodily injury, and uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage. Florida requires drivers to carry a minimum of $10,000 in PIP coverage, and PIP covers your medical expenses regardless of whether you were at fault for the crash.
Bodily injury coverage covers injuries a driver causes to another driver. Accordingly, if a driver injures you and they have bodily injury coverage, that coverage is available to pay for things like medical expenses, missed work, and pain and suffering resulting from your injuries. The at-fault driver would need to carry bodily injury coverage for your injuries to be covered, and you would need to bring a third-party claim for compensation.
Uninsured motorist coverage (UM) and underinsured motorist coverage (UIM) cover your injuries when someone else is at fault for the crash. UM and UIM are coverages that you can purchase on your own policy to cover your injuries. Thus, to access UM or UIM, you have to bring a first-party claim against your own insurance company.
Unlike many other states, Florida does not require drivers to carry bodily injury coverage or uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.
First Party and Third Party Insurance Claims
You’ll need to report any car accident to your own insurance company, even if you weren’t at fault. The steps are similar whether you’re filing with your own insurance or filing a third-party claim with another driver’s insurance provider.
Filing a Claim Against Another Driver (Third-Party Claim)
A third-party claim is a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance provider. This type of claim may take a while to resolve since the other party’s insurance provider will investigate the accident, determine if their customer is actually at fault, and analyze your damages and what they owe you.
Filing a Claim With Your Own Insurance (First-Party Claim)
Even if you weren’t at fault for the accident, you may still need to file a claim with your own insurance. Reasons to file under your own policy include:
- You’re in a no-fault state. Florida and other no-fault states follow a different process for personal injury cases (as opposed to property damage, for which the at-fault driver is liable). All drivers must carry personal injury protection (PIP) insurance coverage, and this is what you use for accident-related injuries and their associated costs. You will only pursue compensation from the at-fault driver for personal injury cases if the losses you incur exceed your PIP coverage (usually $10,000).
- The at-fault driver is underinsured. You can file a claim for property damage with your own insurer if the at-fault driver is underinsured. If you have underinsured motorist coverage, this adds to the overall coverage available to you if the driver that caused the crash has insufficient coverage. However, not all drivers have uninsured motorist coverage, so you need to check your policy to see if this coverage is available to you.
- The at-fault driver doesn't have auto insurance. Many drivers in Florida don't carry the minimum coverage required by law. If the at-fault driver is uninsured, uninsured motorist coverage may be available to you, depending on whether you have that coverage on your auto policy.
- You have a car loan balance. Gap insurance can help cover your losses if you totaled a leased or financed car, but you have some balance remaining on the lease or loan.
Whether you’re filing with your own insurance company or a third-party insurer, make sure you understand your own policy in case you have to use it. Learn what types of losses are covered and your deductible amount. Additionally, file your claim as soon as possible. It can be easy to forget critical details about the accident while you’re dealing with the stress of property damage and injuries.
How to Strengthen Travelers Insurance Claims for Maximum Value
Insurance claims are your first avenue for pursuing compensation for property damage, injuries, or both. To pursue the maximum compensation allowed for your claim, strengthen it by following these post-accident steps:
Get a Police Report / Call the Authorities
Be sure to get a police report. This helps to establish the basic facts of an auto accident, including:
- When it happened
- Where it happened
- Who was involved
- What vehicles were involved
- Insurance policies that may apply
- Who was at fault
Although police reports aren't typically admissible as evidence at trial, they can be very useful in the pre-suit claims process.
Gather Evidence at the Scene
Gather all the evidence you can immediately after the crash. Evidence tends to disappear quickly, and the more evidence you can stack in your favor the better. Take pictures and videos of everything, and be sure to get the contact information of any witnesses to the crash that may be willing to help.
Seek Medical Attention
Get medical treatment right away if you think you may be hurt. If you wait to get treatment, the insurance adjusters and defense lawyers will use that to say you weren't really hurt. This is one of their strongest arguments, and you can take that argument away from them by simply going to get medical treatment right away.
Do What Your Doctors Tell You
Another argument defense lawyers use is the gaps in treatment argument. Essentially, they point to any gaps in treatment or extended time between appointments to say you aren't hurt. Go to your medical appointments, and you take away this defense argument.
Contact a Lawyer
The sooner you contact a lawyer, the sooner you have someone guiding you and taking steps to protect your legal rights. We can get experts to review black box data, and we can have investigators search for important evidence like video footage. Evidence disappears quickly, but when you have a lawyer working for you, you have the best chance of building the strongest possible case.
How to File a Florida Car Accident Insurance Claim With Travelers
If you’re insured by Travelers or you’re filing a claim against an at-fault driver with Travelers insurance, you can file your claim online. Travelers recommends you create an account with MyTravelers® so you can communicate securely with their team, view your claim status, see payment details, and get easy access to coverages and next steps.
After filing, you’ll need an appraisal for your car repair. Travelers offers the MyTravelers® Repair Network—a network of auto repair facilities that can appraise and repair your vehicle. These facilities can also conduct virtual appraisals to limit the waiting period for an appraisal.
Next, get your vehicle repaired. If the shop finds unexpected damage not included in the estimate, they’ll speak with Travelers about how to proceed. If your vehicle can’t be repaired, a Travelers claim professional will help you resolve your total loss claim.
You’ll be responsible for paying the amount left on your deductible, but Travelers will pay the rest to the shop. If you’re a Travelers customer working through your own policy, and if someone else is at fault for the accident, Travelers may pursue subrogation to recover the costs of repair from the at-fault party.
How Our Florida Car Accident Lawyers Can Help You Through the Travelers Insurance Claim Process
Our tips for dealing with insurance adjusters can help you navigate the insurance claim process. However, it’s easy to make critical mistakes when talking to experienced insurance adjusters who want you to make statements that can be used against you later.
When you hire the skilled attorneys at our Firm, we will take over communication with the insurance companies to help ensure you avoid mistakes when dealing with them. We handle the Travelers insurance claims process so you can focus on healing and getting better. Here are some of the ways we can help:
- Perform an investigation
- Gather critical evidence
- Get the help of experts in data, vehicles, or accident reconstruction
- Communicate directly with insurance adjusters
- Negotiate a settlement
- File a lawsuit
- Take a case to trial (if necessary)
Get help with the Travelers Insurance Claims Process After an Auto Accident
Our law firm handles auto accident cases. That's what we do. We know how to get the best result possible for you, and we're here to help you through the Travelers insurance claims process.
You can call us anytime at 321-LAWSUIT for a free consultation. Representation is free unless we win; there are no upfront costs. Also, when you call us for a case evaluation, we'll make sure you get to speak with a lawyer, not a person in a call center or a customer service representative.
If you want to work with a law firm that value a personal connection and that gives you direct access to your lawyer, give us a call. An attorney at our office will help you better understand the path forward and what to expect.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Travelers Insurance Claim Process
What is the Travelers Auto insurance claims phone number?
You can contact the Travelers claims center at (800) CLAIM33 or (800) 252-4633. You can also access the claim center on their website.
Does Travelers do a good job handling claims?
In our experience, Travelers is one of the best insurance companies to deal with. They treat people fairly more often than most insurance companies, and we highly recommend them. We even recommend Travelers to our family members because they're such a good company. Sometimes, you can get bad insurance adjusters, but that's part of the insurance industry. Travelers has great people more often than not, at least in our experience.
How Do I Check My Travelers Claim Status?
You can check your claim status on the Travelers page dedicated to claims tracking. When we have a case against a person insured by Travelers, we can also check the status by reaching out to the insurance adjuster directly.
What is the Travelers Insurance Claim Process Timeline?
Every case is different, and how quickly a case will resolve will depend upon factors like liability, damages, extent of injuries, duration of medical treatment, and whether the case must go into litigation. Cases that settle without a lawsuit will typically settle between 5 and 8 months, sometimes faster and sometimes longer. When we have to file a lawsuit and litigate a case, it can take between 1 and 3 years, depending on the case.
How Do I Report an Auto Accident Claim to Travelers?
Typically, people report auto accident claims to Travelers in one of 3 ways:
- By Phone: You can call the Travelers claims department at (800) 252-4633.
- Through the Mobile App: You can use the MyTravelers mobile app to report your claim.
- Online Through the Travelers Website: You can report an auto claim on the Travelers website.