The insurance company has a script.
Here is what actually happens after a crash. The other side’s adjuster calls within a day, asks for a recorded statement, and offers a small check with a release attached. We take those calls for you, and nothing gets signed until we have read your policy.
Pennsylvania Car Accident Lawyers
Guide contentsWhat we take on, and what we ask of you
When you hire us, we become your point of contact with the other side's insurance company. We give their adjuster our number and ask that everything come through this office. We answer their letters, we fill out their forms, and we tell you afterward what they asked for and what we said.
Nothing gets signed until we have read your policy. We ask you to send us every page of it, and we read all of it. Then we put it in plain words for you and sit down with you before you put your name on anything.
In the first week, call us before you sign anything and before you agree to speak on a recorded line. Keep every piece of paper that arrives about the crash. Write down what you remember while it is fresh. Bring us the police report, the photographs, the names of anyone who saw what happened, and any insurance information you were given. If you do not have those things, tell us at the first meeting and we will ask for them.
Full tort and limited tort in Pennsylvania
This section covers Pennsylvania law. Pennsylvania makes your insurer put the choice in writing, and it does so twice. For a private passenger motor vehicle liability insurance policy on and after July 1, 1990, the insurer must notify each named insured in writing, not less than 45 days before the policy first renews, that two alternatives are available, full tort insurance and limited tort insurance.1 The same notice is owed earlier as well. Prior to the first issuance of such a policy on and after July 1, 1990, each insurer shall provide each applicant with the notice required by paragraph (1). A policy may not be issued until the applicant has been provided an opportunity to elect a tort option.2 Here is the wording the state requires for the limited tort option: you and other household members covered under the policy may seek recovery for all medical and other out-of-pocket expenses, but not for pain and suffering or other nonmonetary damages unless the injuries suffered fall within the definition of serious injury as set forth in the policy, or unless one of several other exceptions noted in the policy applies.1 The required wording for the full tort option describes an unrestricted right for you and your household members to seek financial compensation for injuries caused by other drivers, under which you may seek recovery for all medical and other out-of-pocket expenses and may also seek financial compensation for pain and suffering and other nonmonetary damages.1
If you never signed anything, the statute still decides for you. If a named insured who receives that notice does not indicate a choice within 20 days, the insurer must send a second and final notice, and if the named insured has not responded to either notice ten days prior to the renewal date, the named insured and those he is empowered by this section to bind by his choice are conclusively presumed to have chosen the full tort alternative.3 The default runs the other way for an uninsured owner. An owner of a currently registered private passenger motor vehicle who does not have financial responsibility shall be deemed to have chosen the limited tort alternative.4
Serious injury and noneconomic loss are defined for this whole chapter of the Vehicle Code, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.5 A serious injury is a personal injury resulting in death, serious impairment of body function or permanent serious disfigurement.6 Noneconomic loss is pain and suffering and other nonmonetary detriment.7
A person bound by the full tort election stays eligible to seek compensation for noneconomic loss claimed and economic loss sustained in a motor vehicle accident caused by another person’s fault, under applicable tort law.8
The other exceptions that notice refers to are set out in the statute itself. An individual otherwise bound by the limited tort election who sustains damages in a motor vehicle accident as the consequence of the fault of another person may recover damages as if that individual had elected full tort whenever the person at fault meets one of four conditions set by the statute.9 First: the person at fault is convicted of, or accepts Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition for, driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance in that accident.10 Second: the person at fault is operating a motor vehicle registered in another state.11 Third: the person at fault intends to injure himself or another person, provided that an individual does not intentionally injure himself or another person merely because his act or failure to act is intentional or done with his realization that it creates a grave risk of causing injury or the act or omission causing the injury is for the purpose of averting bodily harm to himself or another person.12 Fourth: the person at fault has not maintained financial responsibility as required by this chapter, provided that nothing in this paragraph shall affect the limitation of section 1731(d)(2) (relating to availability, scope and amount of coverage).13
Two more exceptions sit outside those four. An individual otherwise bound by the limited tort election keeps full tort rights on claims against a person in the business of designing, manufacturing, repairing, servicing or otherwise maintaining motor vehicles, arising out of a defect in the vehicle caused by or not corrected by an act or omission in the course of that business, other than a defect in a motor vehicle operated by that business.14 And that same individual keeps full tort rights if injured while an occupant of a motor vehicle other than a private passenger motor vehicle.15
That last exception turns on a defined term, and the definition is the whole question. A private passenger motor vehicle is a four-wheel motor vehicle, except recreational vehicles not intended for highway use, which is insured by a natural person and16 either is a passenger car neither used as a public or livery conveyance nor rented to others,17 or has a gross weight not exceeding 9,000 pounds and is not principally used for commercial purposes other than farming.18 The term does not include any motor vehicle insured exclusively under a policy covering garage, automobile sales agency repair shop, service station or public parking place operation hazards.19
What You Can Recover
Start with your own auto policy. Pennsylvania calls what it pays first party benefits, and defines them as medical benefits, income loss benefits, accidental death benefits and funeral benefits.20 An insurer that issues or delivers a liability policy covering a motor vehicle of the type required to be registered in Pennsylvania, and registered and operated here, must make first party benefits available for purchase, for injury arising out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle.21 Read the carve-out before you assume it covers you. That duty does not reach recreational vehicles not intended for highway use, motorcycles, motor-driven cycles, motorized pedalcycles or like type vehicles.21
The benefits themselves come next. Five of the six the section names are set out below. The sixth is the extraordinary medical benefit, which is medical benefits as defined in paragraph (1) above a dollar threshold this page does not state.22
We want you to know exactly what the medical benefit covers. It pays for reasonable and necessary medical treatment and rehabilitative services.23 This coverage is subject to the limitations set out in section 1797.23 As written, the coverage carries no limit as to time.23 That open-ended feature comes with a timing condition.23 Within 18 months of the accident that caused the injury, it must be ascertainable, with reasonable medical probability, that further expenses may be incurred as a result of the injury.23 We watch that 18-month window closely when we build out a client's medical picture.
The income loss benefit has two halves, and people usually hear about only the first. It includes eighty percent of actual loss of gross income.24 It also includes reasonable expenses actually incurred for hiring a substitute to perform self-employment services, mitigating the loss of gross income, or for hiring special help that enables a person to work and mitigate that loss.24 Income loss does not include loss of expected income for any period following the death of an individual, or expenses incurred for services performed after that death.24 And it does not commence until five working days have been lost after the date of the accident.24
The accidental death benefit works differently. It pays a death benefit to the personal representative of the insured.25 It applies when injury from a motor vehicle accident causes death within 24 months from the date of the accident.25 The funeral benefit covers a separate category of expense.26 It covers expenses directly related to the funeral, burial, cremation or other form of disposition of the remains of someone who has died.26 Those expenses must be incurred as a result of the individual's death, and that death must itself result from the accident.26 The expenses must be incurred within 24 months from the date of the accident.26 The combination benefit is not a separate kind of coverage on its own.27 It combines the medical benefit, the income loss benefit, the accidental death benefit and the funeral benefit.27 It exists as an alternative to buying those four benefits separately.27 We walk clients through which of these benefits apply before we make any claim under them.
Insurers under this chapter must also make available for purchase a policy that contains only the chapter's minimum requirements of financial responsibility and medical benefits.28
Now the piece people miss. Stacking. Insure more than one vehicle under one or more policies carrying uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, and the stated limit applies separately to each vehicle.29 The coverage available to an insured is the sum of the limits for each vehicle as to which the injured person is an insured.29
A named insured can waive stacking.30 Waive it, and the limits available drop to the stated limits for the one vehicle as to which the injured person is an insured.30 A named insured buying that coverage for more than one vehicle under a policy has to be given the chance to waive the stacked limits and buy the reduced coverage instead, at a reduced premium.31
The waiver is exercised by signing a written rejection form the statute spells out, one for uninsured motorist coverage32 and a separate one for underinsured motorist coverage.33 Signing says the insured knowingly and voluntarily rejects stacked limits, and that the limits purchased are reduced to the limits stated in the policy.32 The form must be signed by the first named insured and dated to be valid.34 A rejection form that does not comply with the section is void.34
One last piece, and this one is about your own insurer. In an action arising under an insurance policy, if the court finds the insurer acted in bad faith toward the insured, the court may take all of the following actions.35 Award interest on the amount of the claim from the date the insured made it, at the prime rate of interest plus 3%.36 Award punitive damages against the insurer.37 Assess court costs and attorney fees against the insurer.38 Read the verb. The court may take those actions, not must.35 And read who they run against. This turns on an insurer's bad faith toward its own insured, not on the driver who hit you.35
How Long You Have to File
Pennsylvania sets the deadline at two years.39 The two years cover an action to recover damages for injuries to the person, or for the death of an individual, caused by the wrongful act or neglect or unlawful violence or negligence of another.40
So when does the clock start? Under Pennsylvania law, your filing period is computed from the time your cause of action accrued, except as the statute itself provides otherwise.41 The statute's own words are that the time within which a matter must be commenced under the chapter that contains § 5502 "shall be computed, except as otherwise provided by" § 5502(b) "or by any other provision of" that chapter, "from the time the cause of action accrued, the criminal offense was committed or the right of appeal arose".41 Section 5502(b) provides that court rules may make § 5502(a) more specifically applicable to particular classes of matters by defining the acts, omissions or events from which the limitation is computed, and that rules adopted under § 5502 "shall take effect only in the manner provided by section 503(b) (relating to procedures)".42
What about a child? If the injured person is an unemancipated minor at the time the cause of action accrues, the period of minority is not counted as part of the time within which the action must be commenced.43 A minor is an individual who has not yet attained 18 years of age.44 After attaining majority, that person has the same time to commence an action as the subchapter allows anyone else.43
Some things do not stretch the deadline. Except as otherwise provided by statute, insanity does not extend the time this subchapter limits for commencing a matter.45 Imprisonment does not extend it either.45
Suing a Pennsylvania government body after a crash
This one is Pennsylvania law. In Pennsylvania, except as its own subchapter provides, no local agency is liable for damages for an injury caused by any act of the agency, its employees, or any other person.46
A local agency is liable for damages for an injury to a person or property within the limits set forth in that subchapter, and only if both of the following conditions are satisfied and the injury results from an act listed in subsection (b).47 The damages must be recoverable at common law or by statute against a defendant with no immunity defense.48 The injury must come from negligent acts within the scope of the agency's or the employee's duties, and crime, actual fraud, actual malice and willful misconduct are not negligent acts.49
Section 8542(b) of the Pennsylvania statutes lists the acts by a local agency or any of its employees that may result in the imposition of liability on a local agency.50 We set out three of them here, not the whole list. The first is the operation of any motor vehicle in the possession or control of the local agency.51 For that item, the local agency "shall not be liable" to a plaintiff who claims liability under it if the plaintiff was, during the course of the alleged negligence, in flight or fleeing apprehension or resisting arrest by a police officer, or knowingly aided a group, one or more of whose members were in flight or fleeing apprehension or resisting arrest by a police officer.51 The second is a dangerous condition of trees, traffic signs, lights or other traffic controls, street lights or street lighting systems under the care, custody or control of the local agency.52 The third is a dangerous condition of streets owned by the local agency.53 For both of those last two, under § 8542(b)(4) and § 8542(b)(6)(i), "the claimant to recover must establish that the dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury which was incurred and that the local agency had actual notice or could reasonably be charged with notice under the circumstances of the dangerous condition at a sufficient time prior to the event to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous condition".5253 Section 8542(b)(6)(ii) also reaches a dangerous condition of streets owned or under the jurisdiction of Commonwealth agencies, but only if all of the conditions listed in that provision are met, and this page does not set those conditions out.53
Within six months of the injury or the accrual of the claim, anyone about to sue a Pennsylvania government unit for damages must file a signed written statement in that unit's office, plus the Attorney General's office if the defendant is a Commonwealth agency.54
Skip it and a case filed more than six months after the injury shall be dismissed and the claim forever barred, though the court shall excuse the failure on a showing of a reasonable excuse.55 Separate rules then apply to a Pennsylvania government unit other than the Commonwealth government.56 Time the injured person cannot give notice because of incapacity or disability from the injury does not count, up to 90 days of incapacity.57 If the injuries result in death, the notice time starts at the death.58 Failure is not a bar if the unit had actual or constructive notice of the incident or condition giving rise to the claim.59
Clear all of that and there is still a limit on the losses themselves. Pennsylvania makes damages recoverable only for the types of loss the statute recognizes.60 Past and future loss of earnings and earning capacity.61 Medical and dental expenses, including the reasonable value of reasonable and necessary medical and dental services, prosthetic devices and necessary ambulance, hospital, professional nursing and physical therapy expenses accrued and anticipated in the diagnosis, care and recovery of the claimant.62 Loss of consortium, loss of support and property losses.63
Then read the pain and suffering paragraph word by word, because it is narrower than the rest. Pain and suffering is recoverable in two instances only: death, or a permanent loss of a bodily function, permanent disfigurement or permanent dismemberment where the medical and dental expenses referred to in paragraph (3) are in excess of a threshold amount the statute sets.64
One more subtraction. If a claimant receives or is entitled to receive benefits under a policy of insurance other than a life insurance policy, as a result of losses for which damages are recoverable under subsection (c), the amount of those benefits is deducted from the damages that would otherwise be recoverable.65
Being partly at fault is not the end of your case.
The statute says it in one sentence. Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 7102(a), contributory negligence does not bar recovery where the plaintiff’s negligence was not greater than the causal negligence of the defendant or defendants against whom recovery is sought, and any damages are diminished in proportion to the negligence attributed to the plaintiff.66 Partial fault reduces a recovery.66 It bars one only when your negligence is greater than the causal negligence of those you seek recovery from.66
When a case has more than one defendant, dividing liability follows a specific rule with its own conditions. That rule applies only where recovery is allowed against more than one person, including actions for strict liability.67 It also applies only where liability is attributed to more than one defendant.67 When those conditions are met, each defendant is liable for a share of the total damages awarded.67 That share is set by a ratio.67 The ratio compares one defendant's own liability to the liability attributed to all defendants.67 It also counts any other persons to whom liability is apportioned under subsection (a.2).67 Except as set out in paragraph (3), each defendant's liability is several and not joint.68 The court enters a separate and several judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against each defendant.68 That judgment is for the apportioned amount of that defendant's own liability.68 We work through each defendant's share carefully before we advise a client on where a recovery can come from.
What about a defendant who settles and leaves the case? Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 7102(a.2), the question of the liability of a person who has entered into a release with the plaintiff with respect to the action, and who is not a party, is still transmitted to the trier of fact, for purposes of apportioning liability only, on appropriate requests and proofs by any party.69 A person whose liability may be determined this way does not include an employer to the extent that the employer is granted immunity from liability or suit under the Workers' Compensation Act.69
In our cases the carrier’s fault number arrives early and in writing, before anyone has reconstructed the crash. It is an opening position, not a finding. We make them prove it.
Where a Pennsylvania Car Accident Case Can Be Filed
Clients ask us where their case will be filed. This section states Pennsylvania law only. For a claim against an individual driver, the Pennsylvania venue rule provides that "[e]xcept as otherwise provided by subdivisions (b) and (c) of this rule, an action against an individual may be brought in and only in a county" that satisfies one of five listed grounds.70
Those grounds are the county where the individual may be served;70 where the cause of action arose;70 where a transaction or occurrence took place out of which the cause of action arose;70 where venue is authorized by law;70 and where the property, or a part of the property, that is the subject matter of the action is located, "provided that equitable relief is sought with respect to the property".70 If the plaintiff states more than one cause of action against the same defendant in the complaint pursuant to Rule 1020(a), the action may be brought in any county in which any one of the individual causes of action might have been brought.71
When the defendant is not an individual, we look to a different subdivision. Actions against the following defendants, "except as otherwise provided in subdivision (c)," "may be brought in and only in the counties designated by" other rules: political subdivisions, Rule 2103; partnerships, Rule 2130; unincorporated associations, Rule 2156; and corporations and similar entities, Rule 2179.72 An action to enforce a joint or joint and several liability against two or more defendants, "except actions in which the Commonwealth is a party defendant," may be brought against all defendants in any county in which venue may be laid against any one of them under the general rules of subdivisions (a) or (b).73
One ground for transfer under subdivision (d) is that "for the convenience of parties and witnesses, the court upon petition of any party may transfer an action to the appropriate court of any other county where the action could originally have been brought".74
Improper venue "shall be raised by preliminary objection and if not so raised shall be waived".75 If that objection is sustained and there is a county of proper venue within the State, the action is not dismissed but is transferred to the appropriate court of that county, and "the costs and fees for transfer and removal of the record shall be paid by the plaintiff".75
Why Choose CM Injury
Every car collision case we accept is built to be tried, and the other side knows it. That is what moves a carrier to take a claim seriously. Not a demand letter. A firm that has stood in front of juries and won. We work up a collision case as if the trial date is already on the calendar, down to the coverage elections and the repair history.
Reading every page of the record. Retaining the right experts early. Preparing for trial. If you were told your crash was not worth pursuing, call us before you give up.
Call us about your collision. The consultation is free, and you pay no fee unless we win.
Reviewed and approved by Frank Mangiaracina
How we handle these cases
What happens after you call.
The evidence gets locked down.
Dashcam and traffic-camera footage, vehicle data, witness statements, put on legal notice before they can disappear.
We read every policy in the case.
The other driver’s coverage, your own first-party benefits, the household policies that may stack. Each one is a separate source of recovery.
We negotiate from a trial posture.
Most cases settle. We prepare the cases we accept for a jury, and the carriers price their offers accordingly.
A careful review and a straight answer.
Or call a partner now at (267) 936-2233.
Questions we hear about Pennsylvania car accident claims
What if I was partly at fault?
In Pennsylvania, the fact that you were partly at fault does not bar you from recovering, so long as your negligence was not greater than the causal negligence of the defendants against whom recovery is sought. If you do recover, your damages are reduced in proportion to the amount of negligence attributed to you. We go through the fault question with each person at the first meeting.
How long do I have to file?
We check the filing deadline before anything else. In Pennsylvania, a two year limitation statute lists actions that must be commenced within two years. That list includes an action to recover damages for injuries to the person, or for the death of an individual, caused by the wrongful act or neglect or unlawful violence or negligence of another. As a general rule, and except as otherwise provided by that chapter, the time within which such a matter must be commenced is computed from the time the cause of action accrued. If the injured person was an unemancipated minor when the cause of action accrued, the period of minority does not count as part of that time, and that person has the same time for commencing an action after attaining majority as other claimants are allowed. For that rule, a minor means an individual who has not yet attained 18 years of age.
What does it cost?
CM Injury takes car accident cases on a contingent fee, so our fee is a share of what we recover for you. The first meeting costs you nothing, and we put the fee terms in a written agreement with you before we begin. No fee unless we win. We discuss costs at the start of every case.
What if the other vehicle belonged to a government agency?
When a client tells us the other vehicle was a state or city vehicle, the notice question is the first thing we take up. Pennsylvania law adds a separate step when the claim is against a government unit. A person who is about to commence a civil action against a government unit for damages on account of an injury to person or property must file a statement in writing, signed by or on their behalf and setting forth the matters the statute specifies, with that government unit within six months from the date the injury was sustained or the cause of action accrued, and if the action is against a Commonwealth agency for damages, must also file in the office of the Attorney General. If that statement is not filed, a civil action commenced against the government unit more than six months after the date of injury is to be dismissed and the person to whom the cause of action accrued is forever barred from proceeding further on it, though the court is required to excuse the failure to file upon a showing of a reasonable excuse. We prepare and serve that notice, so nothing turns on the form of a letter a client sent alone. Three further rules apply only in the case of a civil action or proceeding against a government unit other than the Commonwealth government. For those claims, the time for giving the written notice does not include the time during which the injured individual is unable, due to incapacitation or disability from the injury, to give notice, not exceeding 90 days of incapacity; if the injuries result in death, the time for giving notice commences with the death; and failure to comply is not a bar if that government unit had actual or constructive notice of the incident or condition giving rise to the claim.
