Liability is a claim against another person or entity that can be enforced by law. If a party is liable for a personal injury, that party can be held responsible for the victim’s damages. Liability is required to recover compensation for personal injury claims. If you look at most liability insurance policies, you’ll see that the insurance company will only pay if you are legally responsible for the loss. This means that if someone sues you and a court says you have to pay, the insurance company will help. You can be held legally responsible in three ways: intentional torts; unintentional acts/negligence; and contracts.
Liability Insurance
Property damage liability coverage is insurance that pays for damage to other people’s property if the insured person is found to be at fault for an accident. Bodily injury liability is a type of insurance that pays for injuries caused by the policyholder in an accident. Generally, liability car insurance includes both of these types of coverage up to a certain limit.
Once someone has filed a claim with their insurance company after a car accident, the company will assign the claim to an adjuster. It’s not unusual for there to be more than one adjuster involved in the process. This is because each driver’s insurance company will select an adjuster to look into the car accident. Similar to the police, adjusters research the car accident, speak with witnesses, look at medical reports, examine vehicle damage, and verify details about the insurance policies of the drivers involved like coverage amounts.
The adjusters will determine who was at fault in the car accident, sometimes assigning a percentage of fault to each driver. This is done by applying the state’s legal definition of negligence to the incident. Most cases are settled without going to court. When a court hearing is inevitable, a judge or jury will decide who was at fault by looking at whether the person being blamed was negligent or not.
Liability Synonyms
Responsibility, accountability, culpability