Checklist · Tort

Handling a Motor Vehicle Collision Claim from Scene to Settlement: A Practical Checklist

49 U.S.C. § 31132

Type
Checklist
Jurisdiction
National
Date
2024-07-26
Topic
Tort

This checklist runs a motor vehicle collision claim from the scene to disbursement in the order the work must actually happen. Phase one is the scene and the first day, where the evidence that decides liability is either captured or lost forever. Phase two is the preservation letters that must go out within days to camera owners, the vehicle's custodian, and any commercial carrier whose records have short retention periods. Coverage phases walk through every line on the declarations page, with sustained attention to underinsured motorist coverage and the consent-to-settle requirement that forfeits more claims than any other trap. Medical phases explain why treatment gaps cost more value than pre-existing conditions and what belongs in the chart. Later phases cover the property damage release, demand package assembly, policy limits demands, litigation, and the lien resolution that must be complete before any money is disbursed.

Handling a Motor Vehicle Collision Claim from Scene to Settlement: A Practical Checklist

Tort > Motor Vehicle Collisions | Published 26 July 2024 - Updated 10 November 2025 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

⚠ Three instructions carry more value than everything else here: photograph the scene today, decline the adverse carrier's recorded statement, and get written UIM consent before settling with the at-fault driver.

Use with Motor Vehicle Collisions: A Comprehensive Guide to Fault, Coverage, Damages, and Settlement and The Motor Vehicle Collision Claim Toolkit.

Phase 1 — At the scene

☐ Check for injuries and call emergency services. ☐ ⭐ Call the police and make sure a report is generated. ⚠ "Let's just exchange information" is how liability disputes are born. ☐ Move to safety if the vehicles are drivable and it is required — ⭐ photograph their resting positions first if possible. ☐ Photograph:

  • ☐ Both vehicles from all four corners, then the damage close up
  • ☐ License plates and vehicle identification numbers
  • ☐ ⭐ The other driver's license, registration, and insurance card — photograph rather than transcribe
  • ☐ The road, lane markings, and traffic controls
  • ☐ Skid marks, gouges, debris, and fluid
  • ☐ Sight lines from each driver's approach
  • ☐ Weather, light, and road surface
  • ☐ Any obstruction — parked truck, overgrown hedge, sun angle
  • ☐ ⭐ Any business, residence, or intersection with a camera facing the scene ☐ Get witness names, phone numbers, and one sentence of what each saw. ⚠ Witnesses leave and are never found again. ☐ Note anything the other driver says, especially an admission or an explanation. ☐ ⚠ Do not apologize, speculate, or estimate speeds. ☐ Accept medical evaluation if it is offered.

Phase 2 — Day one

☐ ⭐ Get medically evaluated the same day — emergency department, urgent care, or a physician. ⚠ A first visit weeks later is a causation problem no expert fully repairs. ☐ Describe the mechanism precisely and report every symptom, including the ones that seem trivial. ☐ Report the claim to your own insurer — ⭐ this preserves UM, UIM, MedPay, PIP, collision, and rental coverage, and most policies require prompt notice. ☐ ⭐ Request the declarations page and read the UM and UIM limits. ☐ Write down everything you remember, dated, in your own words. ☐ Set social media to private and post nothing. ☐ ⚠ Do not sign anything — releases, medical authorizations, or property damage settlements.

Phase 3 — Preservation, days two through seven

☐ ⭐ Send preservation letters immediately:

  • ☐ To any business or homeowner with a camera facing the scene — ⚠ most systems overwrite in 72 hours to 14 days
  • ☐ To the vehicle's custodian and the insurer, demanding the vehicle not be repaired, sold, or salvaged, ⭐ and that the event data recorder be preserved
  • ☐ To the other driver, demanding preservation of the phone and its records
  • ☐ ⭐ To any commercial motor carrier, demanding preservation of:
    • ☐ Hours of service records and electronic logging data — 49 C.F.R. Part 395
    • ☐ Driver qualification file — 49 C.F.R. Part 391
    • ☐ Inspection, repair, and maintenance records — 49 C.F.R. Part 396
    • ☐ Drug and alcohol testing records — 49 C.F.R. Part 382
    • ☐ General records under 49 C.F.R. Part 390, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 31132 and 49 U.S.C. § 31136, with licensing standards at 49 U.S.C. § 31305
    • ☐ Telematics, dashcam, dispatch, and electronic control module data
    • ☐ ⚠ Some of these are retained for as little as six months ☐ ⭐ Download the event data recorder before the vehicle moves again. ☐ Return to the scene and photograph it at the same time of day. ☐ Obtain the police report and ⚠ read it for errors, which are common and correctable by supplement. ☐ Obtain any 911 audio and dispatch records. ☐ ⚠ Decline the adverse carrier's request for a recorded statement. ☐ Notify your employer and begin documenting lost time. ☐ ⚠ Calendar the statute of limitations AND any government notice-of-claim deadline — ⭐ the latter can be as short as sixty days and is jurisdictional.

Phase 4 — Map the coverage

☐ Identify every policy that might respond:

  • ☐ The at-fault driver's liability policy
  • ☐ The vehicle owner's policy, if different
  • ☐ Any employer or commercial policy
  • ☐ Any umbrella or excess policy
  • ☐ ⭐ The client's own UM and UIM
  • ☐ ⭐ A resident relative's UM and UIM
  • ☐ The UM and UIM on a vehicle the client was occupying
  • ☐ MedPay or PIP on any of the above
  • ☐ Health insurance, and whether it is an employer self-funded plan
  • ☐ Workers compensation, if the client was working
  • ☐ Short-term or long-term disability

☐ Read the declarations page line by line:

  • ☐ Bodily injury liability limits
  • ☐ ⭐ UM bodily injury limits
  • ☐ ⭐ ⭐ UIM bodily injury limits — the line that decides serious cases
  • ☐ Whether UM and UIM stack across vehicles or policies, where the state allows it
  • ☐ ⚠ Whether UIM limits are offset by the liability payment or sit on top
  • ☐ MedPay and PIP amounts
  • ☐ Collision and comprehensive deductibles
  • ☐ Rental reimbursement daily and aggregate limits
  • ☐ ⚠ Named driver exclusions — an excluded household member is uninsured in that car
  • ☐ ⚠ Whether an umbrella includes excess UM and UIM — many do not unless added

☐ Request the at-fault driver's policy limits in writing. ⭐ Many states require disclosure on request in an injury claim.

☐ ⚠ ⭐ BEFORE settling with the at-fault driver:

  • ☐ Notify the UIM carrier in writing with the settlement terms
  • ☐ ⭐ Obtain WRITTEN CONSENT, or allow the carrier to preserve subrogation by advancing the settlement amount
  • ☐ ⚠ A release given without consent can forfeit the UIM claim entirely. This is the single most common way a good case loses most of its value.

Phase 5 — Medical

☐ Follow the treatment plan. ⚠ Every gap over two or three weeks becomes the defense theme, regardless of the reason. ☐ ⭐ If treatment stops, tell the provider why, so the reason is in the chart — cost, childcare, transportation, or a provider's advice to wait. ☐ Report every symptom at every visit. ⚠ A complaint first appearing in month four is attributed elsewhere. ☐ ⭐ Disclose every prior injury and claim, proactively. Aggravation of a pre-existing condition is compensable; a concealed prior injury found in the records is fatal. ☐ Obtain imaging where indicated — ⭐ objective findings drive value far more than pain reports. ☐ Keep a symptom and activity journal, dated. ☐ Track mileage and out-of-pocket costs. ☐ Use MedPay and PIP first, then health insurance. ⚠ A letter of protection is sometimes necessary and usually produces higher bills and a litigation-driven-treatment argument. ☐ Obtain a causation and permanency opinion from a treating physician addressing mechanism, aggravation, future care, and impairment. ☐ Consider neuropsychological testing early where a head injury is suspected — ⚠ traumatic brain injury is routinely undocumented at the scene. ☐ ⚠ Do not exaggerate. ⭐ One exaggeration found on surveillance destroys everything else.

Phase 6 — Property damage

☐ ⚠ ⭐ READ THE RELEASE. Some carriers use a general release for a property damage payment; signing it can release the injury claim. ⭐ A property damage release should say property damage only, expressly. ☐ Photograph the vehicle thoroughly before repair or disposal — inside and out, including seat belts, airbags, and the interior. ☐ ⚠ Do not permit salvage where there is a serious injury claim, until the event data recorder is downloaded. Tell the carrier in writing. ☐ Negotiate total loss valuation using comparable listings — ⭐ the carrier's initial figure is an opening position. ☐ Ask about diminished value where the state recognizes it. ☐ Get a rental — from the at-fault carrier if liability is clear, from your own coverage if not. ☐ Recover the deductible through your own carrier's subrogation. ☐ Retrieve personal property from the vehicle before it goes to salvage.

Phase 7 — The demand package

☐ Liability narrative with scene photographs, the police report, witness statements, and the event data recorder analysis ☐ Statement of applicable law on fault, including any negligence per se violation ☐ Complete medical records and bills, chronological, with a summary index ☐ Imaging and radiology reports, with key images reproduced ☐ Treating physician's causation and permanency opinion ☐ Wage loss documentation — employer letter with dates, rate, and reason; pay records; tax returns ☐ Life care plan, for catastrophic injuries ☐ ⭐ The client's personal statement about what changed ☐ ⭐ ⭐ Before-and-after witness statements — coworkers, coaches, family. The most persuasive material in the package, and it costs nothing. ☐ Photographs of the vehicles and the injuries ☐ A specific demand, with the reasoning shown

☐ ⭐ Where liability is clear and damages plainly exceed the limits, make a time-limited policy-limits demand with complete documentation. ⚠ An unreasonable refusal to settle within limits can expose the carrier to the entire excess judgment. ☐ ⚠ Do not send a demand before maximum medical improvement. ⭐ Nobody knows the future cost until then. ☐ ⭐ Research the billed-versus-paid and collateral source rules before setting the number.

Phase 8 — Litigation, if it comes

☐ File before the limitations period, and ⚠ before any government notice deadline. ☐ Name every potentially liable party — driver, owner, employer, motor carrier, broker, bar or social host, and any public entity — ⭐ before the period runs. ☐ Written discovery to the driver: driving history · prior collisions · phone use · medical conditions and medications · alcohol · the twenty-four hours preceding. ☐ ⭐ Cell phone records, and forensic examination of the device where warranted. ☐ The driver's deposition early, while memory is fresh. ☐ The carrier's corporate designee on hiring, qualification, training, dispatch, and safety compliance. ☐ Vehicle inspection and data download under Fed. R. Civ. P. 34. ☐ Expert disclosures under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26 — reconstructionist, biomechanical, human factors, vocational, economist, life care planner. ☐ ⚠ Move for sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37 where preserved records were destroyed after the letter went out. ⭐ In a commercial case this motion is strong, because the retention rules are published. ☐ Prepare the client for deposition: the mechanism · any recorded statement · every prior injury and claim · every treatment gap and the reason · daily activities · social media · ⚠ and the "how are you today" question. ☐ Motions in limine: the officer's fault opinion · the seat belt defense where barred · unsupported low-impact biomechanical opinions · collateral source evidence. ☐ Consider partial summary judgment on liability in clear rear-end and signal cases.

Phase 9 — Liens and disbursement

⚠ Nothing is disbursed until every lien is documented and resolved in writing.

☐ ⭐ Medicare — request the conditional payment summary early; 42 U.S.C. § 1395y establishes the secondary payer framework. ⚠ Failing to resolve this creates personal exposure for counsel. Consider a set-aside where future treatment is anticipated. ☐ Medicaid — statutory recovery, subject to allocation limits. ☐ Employer self-funded health plan — ⚠ request the plan document; reimbursement rights depend on its language. ☐ Insured health plan — state law may limit reimbursement. ☐ Workers compensation lien, coordinated with the compensation claim — see Workers Compensation Claims: A Comprehensive Guide to Notice, Benefits, Disputes, and Settlement. ☐ Hospital and provider liens. ☐ PIP and MedPay reimbursement. ☐ Letters of protection. ☐ ⭐ Argue reductions: common fund · made-whole · procurement costs · disputed relatedness of specific charges. ⭐ Audit the bills themselves — see Disputing a Medical Bill and Stopping Improper Collections: A Practical Checklist. ☐ Court approval for a minor or an incapacitated person. ☐ ⚠ A special needs trust where the client receives means-tested benefits — an outright payment terminates eligibility. See Building and Maintaining an Estate Plan: A Practical Checklist. ☐ Confirm the tax treatment of each settlement component. ☐ Provide the client a written disbursement statement showing every deduction.

Special situations

Uninsured driver. ⭐ UM coverage responds. ⚠ Notify your own carrier promptly — late notice is a defense.

Hit and run. ⭐ UM typically applies. ⚠ Many policies require a police report within a short window and, in some states, physical contact.

Rideshare or delivery driver. ⚠ Coverage depends on the app state at impact. ⭐ Preserve the app data immediately.

Government vehicle or road defect. ⚠ ⭐ Find the notice-of-claim deadline the same day — sixty to one hundred eighty days is common and it is jurisdictional.

Commercial vehicle. ⭐ Higher limits, more defendants, and direct negligence theories against the carrier — hiring, training, retention, supervision, and entrustment. ⚠ The records that support them have short retention periods.

Suspected vehicle defect. ⭐ Plead crashworthiness separately — see Preserving Evidence and Pursuing a Product Liability Claim: A Practical Checklist, and check open recalls under 49 U.S.C. § 30118 and 49 U.S.C. § 30120, with the framework at 49 U.S.C. § 30101. ⚠ Note that 49 U.S.C. § 30106 generally bars vicarious liability against a rental company.

Fatal collision. ⭐ The claim shifts to the wrongful death and survival statutes, and an estate must be opened before anyone has authority — see Bringing a Wrongful Death or Survival Action: A Practical Checklist.

The mistakes that cost the most

⚠ Not calling the police. ⚠ Not photographing the scene, or missing the cameras facing it. ⚠ Giving the adverse carrier a recorded statement. ⚠ Letting the vehicle be salvaged before the data download. ⚠ Waiting days to seek treatment. ⚠ A gap in treatment with no explanation in the chart. ⚠ Concealing a prior injury. ⚠ Signing a general release for a property damage payment. ⚠ ⭐ Settling with the tortfeasor without written UIM consent. ⚠ Missing a government notice-of-claim deadline. ⚠ Sending a demand before maximum medical improvement. ⚠ Disbursing before resolving Medicare. ⚠ Posting on social media.

The client card

⭐ Hand this to the client at the first call.

AFTER A COLLISION — THE FIRST WEEK

  1. See a doctor today. Even if you feel okay. Tell them everything that hurts.
  2. ⚠ Do NOT give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurance company. You are not required to.
  3. ⚠ Do NOT sign anything without having it read first — especially anything called a release.
  4. Report the claim to YOUR insurance company, even though it was not your fault.
  5. Ask your insurer for your declarations page and keep it.
  6. Photograph your car inside and out before anything is repaired.
  7. ⚠ Do not let your car be sold for salvage if you are hurt. Say so in writing.
  8. Go to every appointment. ⚠ If you must stop, tell the doctor why, so it is in the chart.
  9. Keep every bill, receipt, and mileage record.
  10. ⚠ Post nothing on social media — not about the crash, not about your weekend, not at all. Ask friends not to tag you.
  11. Write down today what you can no longer do, and update it weekly.
  12. Save any video from a doorbell or dashcam today — it erases itself.

Authority quick reference

Authority Use it for
49 U.S.C. § 30101 Vehicle safety framework in a defect case
49 U.S.C. § 30106 ⚠ Rental company vicarious liability bar
49 U.S.C. § 30118 · § 30120 Recalls and remedies
49 U.S.C. § 31132 · § 31136 · § 31305 Commercial motor vehicle framework
49 C.F.R. Part 390 · Part 391 · Part 395 · Part 396 · Part 382 ⭐ The commercial carrier document set
42 U.S.C. § 1395y ⚠ Medicare secondary payer
15 U.S.C. § 1681m · § 1681b Insurance scoring and adverse action
15 U.S.C. § 1692 Medical bill collection abuse during the claim
Fed. R. Civ. P. 26 · 34 · 37 Disclosures, inspection, spoliation

⚠ Everything else is state law — the fault regime, the no-fault threshold, the UM and UIM rules, the collateral source and billed-versus-paid rules, the seat belt defense, the limitations period, and the government notice requirements. ⭐ Answer those six questions before valuing any case.

The six state-law questions

⭐ Answer these before valuing anything.

  1. ⭐ Comparative fault regime — pure, modified with a 50 or 51 percent bar, or contributory negligence?
  2. No-fault? If so, verbal or monetary threshold, and does the client cross it?
  3. ⭐ Billed versus paid, and the collateral source rule — what medical damages are recoverable, and what evidence is admissible?
  4. ⭐ UM and UIM — stacking permitted? Offset or excess? What does the policy require before settling? Are household exclusions enforceable?
  5. Seat belt defense — barred, admissible on damages, or admissible on fault?
  6. ⚠ Deadlines — limitations period, tolling for minors, and any government notice-of-claim period.

Case status tracker

Item Done Date Notes
Scene photographs obtained ☐
Camera owners identified and letters sent ☐ ⚠ Within days
Police report obtained and reviewed for errors ☐
Witness statements taken ☐
Vehicle preserved; event data recorder downloaded ☐
Commercial carrier preservation letter sent ☐ ⚠ Short retention
Own carrier notified ☐ Preserves UM/UIM/MedPay/PIP
Declarations page obtained and read ☐ ⭐ UIM limits
At-fault limits disclosed ☐
Recorded statement declined ☐
Client instructions delivered in writing ☐
Limitations period calendared ☐
Government notice deadline checked ☐ ⚠ Jurisdictional
Treatment consistent; gaps documented ☐
Prior injuries disclosed ☐
Maximum medical improvement reached ☐ ⚠ Before demand
Causation and permanency opinion obtained ☐
Before-and-after witnesses identified ☐ ⭐
Demand package sent ☐
⭐ UIM written consent obtained ☐ ⚠ Before any release
All liens identified ☐
Medicare resolved ☐ ⚠ Before disbursement
Court approval, if required ☐
Disbursement statement provided ☐

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