A case filed in the Boston Municipal Court shows how important it is for Massachusetts residents to timely file all insurance documents following a car accident where you are injured. As a Boston car accident attorney helping those injured in car accidents, I cannot stress how important it is to contact an attorney as soon as practicable following the accident. Certain Massachusetts car accident insurance forms must be timely filed in order to preserve your claim, and the Personal Injury Protection form is one of those forms.
In March 2010, a case originally decided at the Boston Municipal Court was upheld by the Appellate Division. The Court found in favor of the defendant insurance company because the plaintiff, or the person injured in the car accident, failed to file their Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Application in a timely fashion. The Court ruled that because the form was filed too late, the injured person was not entitled to personal injury benefits.
This is extremely important because it is the Personal Injury Protection part of your insurance policy that pays for medical bills and lost wages when you are injured in a car accident. So, if you do not file the form in time, there will be no money available to pay your medical bills or lost wages. Now, it is true that before the insurance company can refuse to pay your medical bills or lost wages, they must show they were prejudiced in the delayed filing of the application, and that the delayed filing prejudiced the insurance company by depriving it of evidence critical to the investigation and payment of, and defense against, your claims. That’s a lot of legal language in order to say that you must timely file all car accident insurance forms, because negative consequences, including the denial of your claim, may result from you failure to do so.
The case cited above is: Burgos, et al. v. Pilgrim Insurance Company (Lawyers Weekly No. 13-017-10) (10 pages).