Arizona Car Accident & Auto Insurance Claim Attorneys

The short answer: A car crash usually creates two insurance fights, not one: the claim against the at-fault driver’s insurer, and the claims under your own policy, including uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Both insurers have reasons to pay less than the claim is worth. Arizona law gives you tools against each, and deadlines that run whether or not anyone tells you about them.

Two cases hiding in one crash

The liability claim runs against the at-fault driver and is paid, as a practical matter, by that driver’s insurance company. It covers your injuries, medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering, up to the at-fault driver’s policy limits.

The first-party claims run under your own policy: uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage when the other driver has no insurance or not enough, medical payments coverage, and collision or comprehensive coverage for the vehicle itself, including total-loss disputes. Your own insurer owes you a duty of good faith on these claims. Arizona has recognized since 1981 that an insurer that puts its own interests ahead of its policyholder’s can be liable in tort, in appropriate cases for more than the policy amount.

Most crash victims deal with both at once, and the two interact: what you say to one adjuster shows up in the other file.

UM and UIM: the coverage for when the other driver can’t pay

Arizona law requires every auto insurer to make uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage available and to offer it to you by written notice, in limits up to the liability limits of your own policy. Your declarations page is, by statute, the final word on whether you bought or rejected it. Many people carry this coverage without remembering they have it, so after a serious crash the first document worth reading is your own declarations page.

UM coverage steps in when the at-fault driver has no insurance or flees the scene. UIM steps in when the at-fault driver’s limits are too small for your injuries. Both are claims against your own insurance company, and both are claims your insurer may treat like an adversary proceeding the moment the numbers get serious.

How auto insurers underpay

• The early, friendly lowball: a quick settlement offer before your treatment is finished, in exchange for a full release.
• The recorded statement requested in the first days, often used later to minimize injuries you did not yet know the extent of.
• “Pre-existing condition” and “degenerative changes” labels applied to injuries the crash caused or worsened.
• Total-loss valuations built from comparable vehicles that are not actually comparable.
• Inflating your share of fault to discount the payout.
• Delay past Arizona’s claim-handling timelines, waiting for bills to pressure you into accepting less.

None of these is universal, and none is the end of the story. Each is a pattern Arizona’s claim-handling rules and bad-faith law were built to answer.

The deadlines

Arizona’s statute of limitations for personal injury is two years, and a wrongful death claim accrues at the death. Some deadlines are much shorter: claims involving public entities carry their own notice requirements, and UM/UIM deadlines come from the policy itself, which can set them tighter than the lawsuit deadline. On the insurer’s side, Arizona’s claim-handling regulation requires your claim to be acknowledged within 10 working days and answered within 15 working days after a completed proof of loss, with written reasons if more time is needed.

If you were partly at fault

Arizona follows comparative fault. Being partly at fault does not bar your claim; it reduces your recovery in proportion to your share of the fault, which is a question for the jury, not the adjuster. Insurers sometimes assign fault percentages that the evidence does not support. Treat an adjuster’s fault assessment as an opening position.

What to do after a crash

1. Get examined, and keep treating. Gaps in care become the insurer’s best exhibit.
2. Read your declarations page and confirm your UM/UIM limits before you assume anything about the other driver’s coverage.
3. Report the claim promptly and in writing, and note every call in a one-page claim diary.
4. Photograph everything: vehicles, scene, injuries, and keep every bill and receipt.
5. Talk to a lawyer before giving a recorded statement or signing a release. A release signed early is usually final.

Why Dawson & Rosenthal

We are a small trial firm. We keep a deliberately low-volume caseload, so the attorney you hire is the attorney who works your case, and we built our reputation suing insurance companies that deny, delay, and underpay. Steven C. Dawson and Anita Rosenthal have more than 50 years of combined experience holding insurers accountable. Read our client stories and our verdicts and settlements. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in your case.

Because serious injury and insurance cases take real time and resources, we accept a limited number of them. If we are not the right fit, we will say so quickly and point you somewhere useful.

Auto Claim FAQs

The other driver had no insurance. Am I out of luck?

Not necessarily. If you carry UM coverage, your own policy stands in for the missing insurance, and your insurer owes you good faith in handling that claim. Check your declarations page before assuming anything.

The insurer already offered me a settlement. Should I take it?

Not before you know what the claim is worth, which usually is not knowable until treatment has run its course. An early offer in exchange for a release is a bet that you will underprice your own injuries.

My own insurer is fighting my UM/UIM claim. Can they do that?

They can dispute it; they cannot handle it unfairly. Your insurer must investigate reasonably, give your interests equal consideration, and explain denials in writing. When it does not, Arizona’s bad-faith remedies apply. Our insurance bad faith page explains how those cases work.

Talk to an Arizona auto claim lawyer

If you were seriously hurt in a crash, or your own auto insurer is denying, delaying, or lowballing a claim, contact Dawson & Rosenthal, P.C. We will tell you plainly where your claim stands. California drivers can start with our San Diego auto claims page.

This page provides general information about insurance claims, not legal advice about your situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes.