Written & reviewed by NotALawyer Review AI · Updated June 26, 2026
What to do at the scene, how insurance claims actually work, and how to find the deadline your state puts on an injury claim.
The minutes right after a crash shape almost everything that follows — your safety first, then the police record and the evidence you'll wish you had later. People come before paperwork. If anyone is hurt or the road is dangerous, call 911. If the cars are drivable and it's safe, move out of traffic; if not, leave them where they are, turn on your hazard lights, and get yourself and your passengers somewhere safe.
Call the police even for a crash that looks minor. In most places an officer will document the scene and file a report, and many states require you to report a crash that involves injury or property damage above a set threshold. That official report becomes a neutral record of what happened, who was there, and the conditions — something memory and the other driver's version of events can't be counted on to preserve.
Exchange information, but you don't have to settle the question of fault at the curb. Get the other driver's name, phone, address, license number, plate, insurance company and policy number, and the vehicle's make and model. Then document the scene yourself while everything is still fresh.
Get checked by a medical professional even if you feel okay. Adrenaline masks pain, and some of the most common crash injuries — whiplash, concussions, soft-tissue damage, internal injuries — can take hours or days to surface. A prompt exam protects your health, and it also creates a dated medical record connecting any injuries to the crash.
Say a driver is rear-ended at a red light, feels fine, waves off the ambulance, and only sees a doctor a week later when her neck stiffens up. Nothing about that is unusual. But as a factual matter, a long gap between the crash and the first treatment — or big gaps in the middle of a treatment plan — gives an insurer room to argue the injury came from something else or wasn't serious. That isn't a comment on any particular claim; it's just how the records tend to get read.
Keep everything. Follow the treatment plan, make your follow-ups, and save bills, discharge papers, prescriptions, mileage to appointments, and notes on how the injury affects your work and daily life. A consistent record is the backbone of any claim.
Report the crash to your own insurer promptly. Most policies require "prompt" notice as a condition of coverage, and waiting can jeopardize benefits you've already paid for. Reporting a crash is not the same as admitting fault — it's a contractual step you owe your own company.
Understand who's who. Your own insurer owes you duties under your policy. The other driver's insurer does not work for you; its adjuster's job is to resolve the claim for as little as possible. That doesn't make adjusters villains, and you'll often need to communicate with them, but it explains why the framing of their questions matters.
Two things commonly catch people off guard. First, the other side's adjuster may ask for a recorded statement — you are generally not required to give the other driver's insurer one, and anything you say can be used to minimize the claim. Second, an early settlement offer can land fast, sometimes before you know the full extent of your injuries. Once you sign a release, the claim is usually closed for good, even if you need more treatment later. There is no rule that you must accept the first number, and you can ask for offers and requests in writing.
How a crash gets paid for depends heavily on your state's system. In traditional at-fault (tort) states, the driver who caused the crash — through their insurer — is responsible for the resulting damages, and you typically pursue the at-fault driver's liability coverage. In no-fault states, each driver first turns to their own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage for medical bills and certain losses regardless of who caused the crash, and the right to sue the other driver is limited unless the injuries cross a legal threshold.
A number of states use a no-fault or hybrid PIP system while most remain at-fault, and a few let drivers choose certain coverage options. So the rule that governs your crash depends on where it happened and on the coverages written into your policy. Your state's insurance department or DMV can tell you which system applies and what your policy actually includes.
Knowing your state's system matters because it shapes your first move. In an at-fault state you may deal primarily with the other driver's liability insurer; in a no-fault state you typically open a claim with your own PIP coverage right away, often regardless of who was to blame. PIP also tends to cover only certain losses up to a set limit, so serious injuries can still lead to a claim against the at-fault driver once the legal threshold is met. The labels matter less than understanding which door you walk through first.
Real crashes are rarely 100% one person's fault, so states have rules for splitting it. Under comparative negligence — the majority approach — your recovery is reduced by your share of the blame. In a "pure" comparative system you can still recover something even if you were mostly at fault, minus your percentage. In a "modified" comparative system, you're barred entirely once your share crosses a set line, commonly framed around the halfway mark.
A few states, plus Washington, D.C., still follow the older and much harsher contributory-negligence rule, where being even slightly at fault can bar recovery completely. Which rule your state uses, and the exact cutoff, changes the math on a claim significantly. See the your-state panel above for the rule that applies where your crash happened — don't assume your state works like the one next door.
Not every driver carries insurance, and plenty carry the bare legal minimum. Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage steps in when the at-fault driver has no insurance or flees the scene; underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage helps when the other driver has some coverage but not enough to cover the harm. Both are part of your own policy, and for many people they're the most important coverage they own.
States differ on whether UM/UIM coverage is required, must be offered, or can be waived, and on how it stacks with other coverage. Because it's the coverage that protects you from everyone else's gaps, it's worth knowing exactly what you carry. See the your-state panel above for your state's rule, and check your declarations page for your actual limits.
UM/UIM is easy to overlook because it guards against the other driver failing you rather than against your own mistakes. Yet a hit-and-run or a bare-minimum-coverage driver can leave a careful, fully insured person holding the bill. When a crash involves someone who can't be found or carries no coverage at all, this is often the part of your own policy that ends up doing the heavy lifting — which is exactly why reviewing it before you ever need it tends to pay off.
Every state puts a hard deadline — a statute of limitations — on filing an injury lawsuit. Miss it, and the court will almost always throw the case out no matter how strong it is. The clock generally starts on the date of the crash, though some situations (such as an injury that isn't discovered right away) can shift it. Settling with an insurer is separate from this deadline; ongoing negotiations do not pause the clock.
There's a major trap worth flagging: if a government vehicle or employee was involved — a city bus, a police car, a public-works truck — you usually have to file a formal written notice of claim with the right agency on a much shorter timeline, sometimes just a matter of months, before you're even allowed to sue. These notice deadlines are separate from, and far shorter than, the regular statute of limitations.
Your state's injury-claim deadline is in the your-state panel above, and you can line up all 50 in the statutes-of-limitation comparison table on this page. Because the date is unforgiving and the rules have exceptions, a deadline-sol tool — or a short call to a licensed attorney in your state — can help you pin down the exact date that applies to your situation, well before it arrives.
When people ask "what is my case worth," the honest answer is that no article can tell you. The value of any claim turns on facts only a full review of your records and your state's law can sort out. What a guide can do is lay out the general categories of losses that injury claims commonly address.
These are categories, not a calculation, and nothing here is a valuation of your claim. Some states cap or limit certain categories — non-economic damages especially — and how each one applies turns on your specific facts and the evidence behind them. That's exactly why thorough records and your state's rules matter so much, and why two crashes that look similar on the surface can resolve very differently.
Plenty of small, clear-cut crashes get resolved directly with the insurer. It's more common to talk to a lawyer when there are serious or long-term injuries, disputed fault, a government vehicle, an uninsured driver, several cars involved, or a settlement offer that feels low or arrives suspiciously fast. A short consultation can help you understand your options before a deadline or a signed release closes them off.
Most injury lawyers work on contingency: instead of charging by the hour, they take an agreed percentage of any recovery — commonly around a third — and you generally pay no attorney's fee if there's no recovery. Case costs such as filing fees, records, and experts are handled separately and spelled out in the fee agreement, so read it closely and ask how those costs are treated if the case doesn't succeed. Many lawyers offer a free initial consultation.
If you're not sure whether your situation calls for one, a do-i-need-a-lawyer tool can help you think it through. And you can always find a lawyer or talk to a licensed attorney in your state for a one-time consult without committing to full representation.
How long you have to file suit for five common claim types — personal injury, property damage, written and oral contracts, and debt — in every state, in years, each cited to the statute. A blank means we haven't sourced that period yet.
General statutory information, not legal advice. The clock's start date and exceptions depend on the facts. Open the cited statute and confirm the current deadline for your state before you rely on it.
More on this topic: the Personal Injury hub
These guides are general information about the law, not legal advice for your specific situation. Talk to a licensed lawyer in your state before making decisions that affect your rights.