What is a third party claim?

There seems to be confusion about what constitutes a third party claim. For example, if your vehicle is struck by someone else and you have damage to your car, a rental expense, an injury, wage loss, and medical bills, which of those is a claim?

The answer is to break it down by type of damage. Okay, so how do you do that? Fortunately, you do not have to do that. The other person's insurance company will do it for you, if the other person was at fault. But, let me explain what they consider a claim. (It is different with your own insurance, but we will discuss that another time.)

Property damage: this includes damage to your car and any rental expense incurred.

Bodily injury: this includes the wage loss, medical expenses and "pain and suffering." These are not three separate claims, but rather one claim. Each person has their own claim. So, if you and Junior are involved in a collision, you have a bodily injury claim and your child has a separate bodily injury claim.

I hope this helps answer this question.

Comments

[loreto santiago]

Passenger of insured vehicle A ( driven by insured driver) suffers injuries from collision with insured vehicle B. Vehicle B driver ran the red light and was arrested for DUI. Questions: Is insurer of vehicle A liable to passenger for economic and non-economic damages from injuries to passenger? If so, under what category, third party liability? And if so, will insurance premiums for the insured vehicle be increased by the insurer?

[Ram]

Thanks a lot for quick reply to above inquiry. Just one additional clarification regarding the same :-

I excluded the new household member from my policy by signing a form called "operator exclusion endorsement and uninsured motorists coverage deletion endorsement". After signing this, my insurance company sent me new proof-of-insurance cards that I am supposed to keep in car. Weird thing is that these card show my name as well as new household member's name (whom I just excluded). Does that mean that this new member is covered by the policy at least for state required liability insurance ?

[Jonathan]

Ram -

A few answers:

1. Yes.
2. No.
3. Maybe. You need to read your policy.
4. It sounds high. You should shop around. Feel free to call Jacqueline at www.wgbender.com. She should be able to give you a quote.

[Ram]

I live in California. I have a new member in the household who can drive my car. I have a few questions :-
1) Am I required by law to report this to my Auto insurance company?
2) Should I avoid reporting?
3) If I haven't reported this, would the new member be covered by my policy by default?
4) My insurance company is asking me exactly double the premium on adding new driver. Is this reasonable? I mean, common sense says that premium for two-driver/one-car should not be double of one-driver+one-car situation. Is this industry norm (more-or-less)?