Thousands of car accidents happen in Georgia every year. Motorists who are involved sometimes wonder if they need to report them to their insurance companies and when they must report their accidents to the police. Timing issues for reporting accidents are important, and people should make certain to follow the rules.
In Georgia, people are required to immediately report car accidents in which the damage is estimated to be $500 or more or when anyone involved is injured or killed. If an accident is very minor and no one is injured, people may not want to report it to their insurance companies or to law enforcement. However, they should be aware that minor collisions may still result in property damage that costs more than $500 to fix, so people may want to err on the side of reporting.
While significant accidents must be reported immediately to the police by calling 911, the people involved will also need to report them to their insurance companies. Most companies have established their own time frames for reporting accidents, so it is important for people to review their policies.
When people are injured or killed in car collisions that resulted from the negligent acts of others, they might want to talk to personal injury lawyers about the deadlines that apply for filing claims. Georgia has strict statutory deadlines in place within which injury and wrongful death lawsuits must be filed. If people miss the deadlines, they will be foreclosed from later trying to collect damages to compensate them for their losses. It may be a good idea for people to talk to lawyers as soon as possible after their accidents instead of waiting until near the end of the statutory deadline. Acting quickly may allow their lawyers to have more time to investigate the claim.
