Attorney for Car Wrecks in Orlando
If you or someone close to you has been in a car wreck in Orlando, get in touch with attorneys at Michael T. Gibson, P.A., Auto Justice Attorney today. You can either call our office at (407) 422-4529 or fill out one of our short contact forms. Our firm and our family are here for you.
The experienced Orlando car wrecks attorneys at Michael T. Gibson, P.A., Auto Justice Attorney can help you get the compensation you deserve. Call us today at (407) 422-4529 to speak with one of our lawyers during your 100% free consultation.
If you look at headlines about Orlando car crashes, you’ll see they happen for many different reasons. These include aggressive drivers, teen drivers, tourists making errors, drunk driving, and more.
Serious automobile accidents can cause severe damage to your vehicle. Repairs may cost even more in case you sustained more serious harm to your car, especially if you have the latest model car. As the cost of vehicles continues to rise, especially with more safety features.
When to Call a Lawyer for Car Damage?
Unfortunately, in most states, minimum liability insurance has not increased to meet it. If your vehicle sustains severe damage in an auto accident, you may struggle to get the compensation you deserve for those losses.
If your vehicle sustained serious damage in an auto accident, contact the Orlando car wreck lawyers at Michael T. Gibson, P.A., Auto Justice Attorney, today at 407-422-4529 to learn more about your right to compensation.
Our firm represents car accident victims and obtains six and seven-figure settlements and awards for serious injuries and damages. We put the same dedication into claims for vehicle damage, so learn how we can help you today.
Car Accidents in Orlando
About two million people live in the Orlando metropolitan area, with over 269,000 living in the City of Orlando. While this might seem manageable, adding around 60 million visitors to the city significantly increases traffic dangers.
Many serious crashes happen on I-4, but vehicles can collide and sustain damage off the highway, including at:
- State Highway 50 and State Highway 436
- Goldenrod Road and University Boulevard (Winter Park)
- Sand Lake Road and John Young Parkway (Orlando)
Your Right to Compensation Following Severe Damage to Your Vehicle
In every state, drivers must carry liability insurance that will provide coverage to the other driver when they cause an accident. If another driver causes an accident, you will typically seek compensation through that driver’s liability coverage. You do not usually have to pay a deductible when another driver’s negligence damages your vehicle. Still, you may have to pay a deductible if you use your insurance for any reason.
Coverage for damage to your vehicle may include several key elements.
Repairs to Your Vehicle
Repairs to your vehicle after a severe accident can prove incredibly costly, especially if you have some expensive modern safety features installed on your vehicle. Simply repairing a windshield, for example, may cost between $900 and $1,500.
Repairs might cost even more if you sustained more serious damage to your vehicle, especially if you have a newer-model vehicle. Most insurance policies will compensate for vehicle repairs, including cosmetic repairs, following an auto accident. Usually, you can file for compensation through the other driver’s insurance company for even minor damage to your vehicle, including bent bumpers and paint scrapes.
Diminished Value
In some cases, insurance policies may offer compensation for diminished value to your vehicle after an accident. Diminished value refers to the decrease in value your vehicle suffers due to the damage it sustained in the accident.
Usually, the diminished value falls into one of three categories:
- Diminished intrinsic value. Many drivers do not want to buy a vehicle that suffered damage in an accident. Often, underlying frame damage gets covered up, decreasing the vehicle’s overall safety in an accident. In other cases, the vehicle may have less longevity or reliability due to the damage it sustained in the accident.
- Diminished immediate value. A diminished immediate value claim relies on the premise that the vehicle has suffered damage in a way that decreases its actual, immediate value. Often, these claims rely on the vehicle’s inability to return to its original state.
- Diminished value due to repairs. A claim seeking compensation for diminished value due to repairs will seek compensation for the vehicle’s decreased overall worth due to the types of repairs done to the vehicle. For example, the inability to return a vehicle to its original color or using aftermarket parts might diminish the vehicle’s value even if the mechanic conducted repairs properly.
A diminished value claim relies on the idea that repairs alone cannot return the vehicle to its original state.
Replacement
In some cases, your vehicle may sustain such severe damage that it will cost more to repair than replace it. Based on an estimate from a mechanic and an evaluation of the damage, the insurance company may choose to total the vehicle.
An experienced mechanic can repair a totaled vehicle. Still, the vehicle’s value will drop substantially due to a rebuilt title, which may cost more than the average consumer will want to spend to repair the vehicle.
If the insurance company totals the vehicle, it will provide compensation to the owner that covers the vehicle’s value. Sometimes, the owner may receive an offer to buy the vehicle’s body back at a significantly decreased cost. Other times, the damage to the vehicle may make it impossible to repair it safely.
Compensation for the vehicle’s value should offer enough financial assistance for the owner to replace it based on its current condition and value before the accident. However, in some cases, drivers may not carry insurance policies that will offer adequate compensation for the vehicle’s full value.
In many states, minimum liability coverage starts at $10,000. On the other hand, the average new vehicle costs around $40,000, and even used vehicles may cost $20,000 or more. Drivers may need to turn to their insurance coverage, including comprehensive or underinsured motorist policies, to receive adequate compensation following the loss of a vehicle.
Understanding Insurance Coverage
While most states require drivers to carry liability insurance, they do not generally require drivers to carry additional insurance on their vehicles. However, as repair costs continue to rise, carrying additional coverage can provide vitally-needed protection to many drivers who drive values with a much higher overall value than the coverage offered by minimum liability insurance.
Liability Coverage
Liability coverage offers compensation for the damage the policyholder does to another driver’s vehicle. In general, liability coverage helps cover the cost of repairs or replacement to the vehicle. However, a policy that offers only minimum liability coverage may not provide adequate compensation for high-value vehicles damaged in an accident.
Liability coverage in Florida, for example, requires drivers to carry just $10,000 in damage coverage to meet minimum insurance requirements. Drivers who carry higher-value policies on their vehicles may have policies that will provide additional compensation to other drivers.
Collision Coverage
Collision coverage compensates for damage to the policyholder’s vehicle when the policyholder causes an accident. Typically, insurance companies will base collision coverage, including how much the policy will cover and how much the policyholder must pay for that coverage, on the vehicle’s value when the owner purchases the policy.
Collision coverage usually comes with a deductible: the amount the vehicle owner must pay before the insurance coverage kicks in. For example, with a deductible of $1,000, if a $20,000 vehicle sustains $5,000 worth of damage, the insurance company will cover $4,000 of the damage, and the owner will need to pay the additional $1,000.
Uninsured Motorist Coverage
While every state requires motor vehicle owners to carry liability insurance to legally operate their vehicles, some drivers choose to ignore those laws and operate their vehicles without insurance. In Florida, for example, an estimated 20 percent of drivers do not carry auto insurance, although they drive regularly.
If those drivers cause an accident, the other driver may have little recourse for recovering compensation since most drivers do not have adequate funds to cover severe vehicle damage.
Uninsured motorist coverage provides vital compensation in an accident with an uninsured motorist. Usually, uninsured motorist coverage adds relatively little cost to the driver’s insurance policy. Still, an accident with an uninsured motorist can provide much-needed assistance in paying for vehicle repairs or replacing a severely damaged vehicle.
Underinsured Motorist Coverage
Minimum liability insurance across many states offers as little as $10,000 in compensation for vehicle damage after a severe accident. With vehicle costs and repairs rising steadily, that compensation may not offer adequate funds to repair a vehicle.
Underinsured motorist coverage helps cover damage to a vehicle not covered by another driver’s liability insurance policy. In many cases, underinsured motorist coverage can help drivers cover the cost of repairs that exceed the coverage offered by another driver’s policy. Underinsured motorist coverage usually adds only a small cost to overall insurance rates, but it can provide vital assistance.
Comprehensive Insurance
Not all damage to vehicles occurs out on the road. Vehicles often sustain severe damage from natural disasters, vandalism, or theft. Many people assume that they have full coverage insurance on a vehicle that has collision insurance.
Collision insurance, however, will not provide compensation for the damage that occurs for any other reason, including a tree limb falling on the car or rising floodwaters that hit an abandoned vehicle and cause severe damage. On the other hand, comprehensive insurance will provide compensation regardless of who or what damaged the vehicle, from vandals or theft to acts of nature.
Comprehensive insurance, like collision insurance, usually comes with a deductible. If your vehicle suffers damage that requires you to use your comprehensive coverage, you may need to cover up to the deductible amount before comprehensive insurance kicks in. However, that coverage can help provide much-needed assistance following many types of disasters that can cause immense damage to your vehicle.