In a no-fault state, someone that has been injured in a car accident has no right to sue the responsible driver, unless the costs created by a resulting injury have exceeded a specific monetary value. That normally means that only someone that has sustained serious injuries would have the right to imitate such a lawsuit.
How do states define a serious injury?
Victims with a serious injury have a right to file a liability claim against the other driver.
Features of serious injury (At least one of the following)
—Significant and permanent loss of important body function
—Permanent injury, without scarring or bodily disfigurement
—Significant, permanent scarring or disfigurement
—Death
Car owners in no-fault states must purchase PIP, as per personal injury lawyer in Menifee.
What is PIP?
That is personal injury protection, one part of their car insurance policy. Drivers covered by PIP have been guaranteed reimbursement for their medical expenses, even if the insured driver has caused the injury-linked accident. Still, there are exceptions to that promised guarantee:
—If a driver’s intentional act were to cause an injury, then the resulting medical expenses would not be covered by PIP.
—If a driver were to commit a DUI and get injured, then he or she would not be covered by PIP
—PIP coverage is denied to any driver that might be injured while racing or while at the wheel of a stolen car.
What is a significant and permanent loss of an important body function?
The loss of the ability to see would be significant and permanent. That would qualify. However, an accident that has caused the victim to have only 1 blind eye would not qualify.
Insurance adjusters might need to learn more about the different systems in the body, because it does not have to be an obvious body function. For instance, it could be that development of a traumatic brain injury has resulted in a malfunction within the system that is meant to limit the build-up of fluid within the ventricles of the brain.
Those are empty spaces that store the fluid that must travel into the spinal cord. The body is supposed to prevent a build-up of that fluid within the brain’s ventricles. However, someone that has been affected by a traumatic brain injury might not be able to prevent such a buildup.
What is the treatment for such a condition? The treatment/remedy involves implantation of a ventricular shunt. That is a tube that runs from the ventricles in the brain to another part of the body.
When completed, that same implantation has caused permanent scarring and disfigurement of the treated patient. Hence, a need for that implantation procedure provides an accident victim with the right to sue, in a not-fault state.