The car insurance contract agrees to pay around the insured's behalf all sums for which he shall become legally obligated. When litigation is resorted to, a good this obligation is determined not through the insurer but from the application of the legal theories obtaining in the jurisdiction where the action is tried. Based on the study conducted by Dr. Richard M. Heins in California:
It was easily indicated that considerable differences exist both as to procedural and substantive law in a variety of states.

The most popular law theories of duty, causation, imputed negligence, gross negligence, assumption of risk and contribution have been generally recognized in the common law but you are utilized for different ways in numerous jurisdictions.
As to the level of the obligation, some victims will probably be overpaid, while some will be given niggardly treatment.

Delays in the operation of the court system to handle automobile litigation have been noted. This defect merits more in depth consideration. Using Los Angeles County, California, for example, it absolutely was found from an analysis of crash litigation there during the period 1943-54 that, although twenty-one new judges have been added in that period to the superior court system, the delay in the docket for jury trial had increased from five months to eighteen and one- half months. The backlog of cases awaiting a hearing had increased from 8,550 in 1953 to 10,573 in 1955 and had been growing on the rate of five hundred cases per month.

"While the typical time between the injury as well as the filing with the complaint remained around 10 months, the common time between your complaint and the trial and the judgment had increased from 1.Four years to 2.8 years." Appeal from judgment would extend the plain-tiff's waiting period still longer. This delay places the innocent victim within tremendous handicap. "The longer the delay, the greater the pressure to have an out-of-court settlement below the actual damage suffered. The fact 89 per cent from the cases filed are compromised or dropped indicates the magnitude of the problem."

Naturally the findings in Los Angeles county are not necessarily associated with court-system delays throughout the nation. Nevertheless they indicate the sizable time barrier that victims might be confronted. It's frequently required to have recourse towards the courts to be able to have responsibility fixed also to get the adequate recovery from your wrongdoer or his insurer. Automobile insurance is just a scheme to fund loss; it exists quite apart from the legal machinery that allocates loss. Delays and inefficiencies within the latter work a hardship on the victims inspite of the information on the previous.

Dual Protection. To explain the essential nature and significance of automobile insurance, a sociological viewpoint continues to be taken. An effort has been created to relate it for the car accident problem also to reveal it as being the cause of the fund that flows the majority of the compensation obtained by innocent victims, particularly those suffering bodily injury or death.

From this approach one might conclude that automobile liability insurance is actually protection for that victims of car accidents. Sight really should not be lost of the fact, therefore, it was originally designed as protection for the motorist. It provides him with vital services, including the investigation of claims, the arrangement of settlements, the handling with the legal defense, as well as the payment of judgments in his behalf. But, in protecting the motorist, in addition, it protects the victim. It performs a dual function simultaneously reflecting the twin nature from the law of fault itself.