In New Jersey…So my wife was rear-ended with 3 kids under 9 in the car. She was 100% not at fault. Wife was the only injury and took an ambulance for a sprain wrist and back/arm pain. One child had seatbelt bruising the next day. The guy hit my wife straight on without breaking or turning into the shoulder at my guess 35 mph in front of my house…. I'll spare you the full story of me running out to the accident. Our car is totaled. We have car rental insurance that we had to pay $150 down-payment for 4 days that will be refunded when we return the car. The medical expense from our wallet is already at $1250. I just don't understand…. the guy hit us with a home depot rental and now we have to pay $1400. We don't have this type of money since we are paycheck to paycheck. We will have no car in 4 days and Will have to pay $1250 in medical bills because someone fell asleep or was distracted by a phone. My wife is still in pain and doesn't want to seek more medical help because of the fear of increased our bill. This is all new to me and never thought we would be out so much money because someone else failed. Anyone have any information? Thank you very much in advance if you do!
my wife was rearended while waiting to turn and now I have to pay 1250 for medical bills?
byu/Vast_Sea_9582 inInsurance
Posted by Vast_Sea_9582
10 Comments
If the timeliness of the claim being handled is important to you, you need to go through your own collision insurance to be paid for your vehicle (assuming you have it). You’ll still be responsible for your deductible, but you’ll be paid much quicker than waiting for the situation with the other driver’s insurance to be sorted out.
NJ is “no fault.” That means you use your own insurance for injuries regardless of fault.
NJ is no fault (for Medical and related). If it goes beyond limits you can always sue the other party. As is the answer to 95% of the questions on here, contact your insurance carrier, that’s what you pay them for.
Did you ask your insurer for information? Seems like the obvious place to start.
As others stated you have to use your medical coverage in NJ for medical bills. PIP coverage in NJ follows the person regardless of who was liable for the accident.
Your insurance carrier will address your medical bills.
You can file a claim with the other drivers insurance for your vehicle damage as well as a bodily injury claim if you so wish however your wife’s medical treatment must be handled through her own policy.
Completely confused. Did u call your insurance to report it to have them go after him or call his? Is there a police report. From what I know in NJ I am thinking you should get reimbursed
I am sorry for what happened. Using your own medical insurance is fine as long as the accident is not really mentioned otherwise they might start making noise about you having to use your auto insurance for medical treatments. So like everyone has suggested you should try to use auto insurance for treatment of injuries. I wish you luck and hope things work out for you.
I work in law and insurance. You’ll probably get reimbursed when all is said and done, since it’s so low – but not gonna lie, it may take a while. You should be made whole. But now you understand if this was more serious, how one careless accident involving someone that it was not their fault can totally dismantle their lives and that of their family…the whole “paycheck to paycheck” thing can cause a landslide. It sucks very much, but be glad it was not 10X worse or 100X worse and cost more out of pocket money or permanent damage. To have 4 people essentially walk away with no long term damage would be the best case scenario, regardless if you were reimbursed. I was also a crime scene tech and worked MVAs on highways – trust me when I tell you, consider yourself lucky.
I had to pay $15,000 for a surgery out of pocket that I HAD to have on my wrist after an acident that wasn’t even my fault…. Because I didn’t have health insurance at the time. I was able to get health insurance backdated and before I was on the hook for over $100,000 from the hospital for something that wasn’t my fault….
If it wasnt for being able to get health insurance to backdate, well I guess I would’ve just ruined my credit. All for something that was not my fault.
A few pros already answered your NJ primary question, but this is an FYI. You will probably have more out of pocket. NJ PIP has a deductible AND a copay. The copay may be 20% until you hit your maximum out of pocket, likely $2,500, and then your carrier will cover the remainder until you max out.
You can also set your health insurance as primary for PIP if you have it, and they cover it as primary. This can lower your car insurance premium by making your auto insurance carrier secondary.