Steps to Filing a Care Insurance Claim in California: OK, so you’ve been in a car accident and everyone has come out with all of their pieces intact. It’s time to start thinking about the next step. You need to decide what’s going to happen with your vehicle, whether or not you should file an auto insurance claim and how to go about doing it. It’s an important process, and one that you need to do the right way if you want to come out ahead.

Here are the steps you need to take after your accident in order to file your auto insurance claim:

1. Decide if it’s worth it. Before you ever call you insurance company, you need to figure out whether or not you need to file a claim. If you’ve got a small scratch on your car and the other vehicle isn’t damaged, you might be better off. Even calling your insurance company to ask them about filing a claim, there’s a good chance that a record was generated and that it can, in the long term, affect your insurance record. If you can pay for the damages out of pocket without filing an auto insurance claim, you’re often better off doing so.
2. Get together your documentation. There is quite a bit of information you’re going to need in order to file your auto insurance claim. You need to have information about the accident itself, any witnesses who may have seen the accident, information about the other party in the accident and their insurance information and, of course, either a copy of the police report or information about how your insurance company can get a copy of the police report.
3. File quickly. If you’re going to file, do it fast. You want to do it as soon as possible, largely because you want to get the process completed quickly.
4. Be ready to hear from the other insurance company. Often, if there is any kid of a dispute or disagreement between the parties, you’ll be contacted by the other person’s insurance company. They may ask you to tell them your version of the story. Realize that the conversation is probably being recorded and documented. If they do call, document the call, as well as the name of the person with whom you spoke.
5. Get your car repaired. At this point, once your claim has been approved by the insurance company, you’re probably going to be able to get your car fixed. The insurance adjuster will probably come out to take a look at the damage, or they may ask you to get your car to a repair shop to get an estimate to get it fixed.