If your vehicle has been declared totaled by the insurance company after a crash, the company will want you to sign a property damage release form before giving you compensation for your totaled vehicle. However, once you sign that form, that part of your claim is closed.
For example, let’s say the insurance company offers you a certain dollar amount for your totaled car, you accept, and sign the release. Several months later you discover that the value of that totaled vehicle was actually $2,000.00 more than what the company paid you. Because you signed the release, you cannot go back to the company to try to renegotiate a better amount. Always watch out (if you don’t have an attorney) for the adjuster offering to include a nominal personal injury settlement along with the property damage settlement on your vehicle. Red flags go up when they offer to include the injury claim along with property damage, especially where you made no such claim yet nor submitted all your relevant bills.
Insurance companies are notorious for bombarding victims with forms and releases in order to quickly settle a case for much less than it is worth. Never agree to sign any documents involving an effort to combine a totaled car’s value along with a personal injury claim (where no claim for injury was yet submitted) until you have consulted with a Virginia Beach car accident attorney with our firm to ensure you are not being taken advantage of.
