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What You Need to Know About Personal Injury Protection (PIP)

This is no-fault insurance which you can carry on your own car, and it provides reimbursement to you and any passenger in your car for medical bills and documented lost wages (up to 80 percent of the wages lost). This coverage applies to you, your family members and passengers in your car, regardless of who caused the accident.

Your insurance company must offer you at least $2,500 in PIP coverage, but you can buy more. If you don't want the PIP coverage, you must reject it in writing. Even if your medical bills are covered by health insurance, you can still submit those same bills to your PIP carrier and receive the reimbursement money yourself. The laws on this are very strict requiring that the insurance company pay PIP claims in a timely manner or they face stiff penalties. The money from making a PIP claim always comes in handy. It can help you deal with the financial strain caused by a car accident.

We strongly encourage our clients with this type of insurance to go ahead and make a PIP claim on their own policy, regardless of whether or not they have health insurance. Our clients frequently tell us they don't want to make a claim on their own insurance policy because the accident was not their fault and they don't think their own insurance company should be involved. They fear that their insurance rates will go up or that they will be completely dropped by their insurance company. Fortunately, it's against the law for an insurance company to raise your rates or drop you solely because you make a PIP claim-this is a no-fault claim! The Anderson Law Firm encourages our clients who are still concerned to call their insurance agents and ask them if their rates will go up. Ultimately, our clients always give us permission to make the claim for them and they're always pleased with the result in the end. We've never heard later on that our clients' rates went up or they were dropped by their insurance companies. After all, these insurance companies want your business!

In Texas, PIP is available in amounts from $2,500 to $100,000, depending on which insurance company you have. Most companies offer it only in amounts of $2,500, $5,000 or $10,000, but some companies, such as USAA, offer it all the way up to $100,000. The cost of PIP is fairly reasonable.

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Contact the Anderson Law Firm online, or by calling 817-294-1900 for a free consultation on your rights.