Pennsylvania car accident claims

The first question in Pennsylvania is not fault. It is your tort election.

Every Pennsylvania driver chose limited tort or full tort when they bought their policy, whether or not they remember doing it. Limited tort is cheaper. What it costs you is the right to claim for pain and suffering in most cases.

If you chose full tort, you can claim for medical costs, lost earnings, and pain and suffering. If you chose limited tort, you can still claim medical costs and lost earnings, but not pain and suffering — unless an exception applies. Check the declarations page of your policy before you assume which one you have.

The limited tort exceptions matter more than the election

Limited tort is not the wall people think it is. You can still recover for pain and suffering if any of these apply:

• Your injury is a serious impairment of body function, permanent serious disfigurement, or death
• The other driver was convicted of driving under the influence, or accepted ARD for it
• The other driver was operating a vehicle registered in another state
• The other driver intended to injure you or someone else
• The other driver was uninsured. This lets you claim pain and suffering from that driver, but not from your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage
• You were riding in or driving a vehicle that is not a private passenger vehicle, such as a bus or taxi
• You were hit as a pedestrian. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held that the limited tort restriction does not apply to a pedestrian’s claim
• Your claim is against a business that designed, built, repaired or serviced a vehicle, over a defect it caused or failed to fix

“Serious impairment of body function” is decided on the facts, not on a list of diagnoses. It is the exception that most limited-tort claims turn on, and it is worth an opinion rather than a guess.

What your own policy pays regardless of fault

Pennsylvania requires every policy to carry at least $5,000 in medical benefits, paid by your own insurer regardless of who caused the crash. Many people carry more without knowing it. These first-party benefits are usually the first money to arrive, and they are not a settlement — accepting them does not close anything.

Underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage, and stacking

If the driver who hit you carries the state minimum and your injuries are worth more than that, the shortfall usually comes from your own underinsured motorist coverage. This is the single most overlooked source of recovery in Pennsylvania car accident claims.

If you insure more than one vehicle, you may also be able to stack that coverage across vehicles — multiplying the limit — unless you signed a waiver rejecting it. Waivers are common and often signed without explanation. Whether one exists in your file is worth checking early.

Being partly at fault does not end the claim

Pennsylvania uses modified comparative negligence. You can recover as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the other side’s. Your award is then reduced by your percentage. At 51 percent you recover nothing.

Insurers know this rule and use it. An early recorded statement is often an attempt to establish your share of the blame before you have advice.

The deadline

What decides what a car accident claim is worth

No one can quote a figure without the file. What actually moves it: whether you have full or limited tort, the nature and permanence of the injury, documented treatment, lost earnings, your share of the fault, and — often the real ceiling — the available policy limits on both sides.

LPB Law Group reviews Pennsylvania car accident claims at no charge, including working out which tort option actually applies to you.