Claim readiness checklist
Everything worth doing for a car insurance claim, in the order it stops being possible, with a line beside each item saying why it is there.
Your ticks are kept in this browser only, and they survive closing the tab.
At the scene
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Why it matters A second collision into the first is common, and it makes the damage from each impact impossible to separate.
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Why it matters Rest positions are the one piece of evidence that disappears the moment traffic starts moving again.
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Why it matters The close-up proves the damage; the wide shot proves it was that car.
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Why it matters These are the details an adjuster asks about six weeks later, when nobody remembers them.
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Why it matters A photograph of a policy card cannot be mistranscribed, and one digit wrong is days lost.
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Why it matters A neutral witness carries more weight than either driver, and they are gone in five minutes.
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Why it matters That number is how anyone finds the report later, including your own insurer.
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Why it matters Memory of a crash fades quickly, and it fades in the direction that flatters the person remembering.
Before you file
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Why it matters The policy sets its own clock, separate from anything a law sets, and it is usually the shorter of the two.
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Why it matters The two routes pay differently, move at different speeds, and one of them may cost you a deductible.
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Why it matters Every insurer asks for the same three documents, and hunting for them is where the first week goes.
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Why it matters An estimate you commissioned is the only figure in the file that did not come from the insurer.
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Why it matters Towing and storage are payable heads of claim that people routinely forget to submit.
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Why it matters Mileage and condition drive the valuation, and they are argued about more often than the damage is.
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Why it matters An injury first mentioned three weeks later is an injury the insurer will treat as three weeks old.
After you file
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Why it matters A dated log is what turns nobody called me back into something anyone can check.
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Why it matters Most stalled claims are waiting on a single item nobody ever named out loud.
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Why it matters A valuation you cannot see is a valuation you cannot argue with.
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Why it matters A release usually closes heads of claim you have not thought about yet, including injuries that surface later.
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Why it matters A written reason is the one thing a supervisor, a regulator or a lawyer can actually work from.
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Why it matters Every other item on this list stops mattering the day a period runs out.
The driver’s kit, at the scene
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Why it matters A driver standing in live traffic will follow a card from the glovebox and will not recall a policy document.
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Why it matters A first call to the wrong desk is how one incident gets reported twice, in two different versions.
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Why it matters The scene is the only evidence the company cannot reconstruct afterwards at any price.
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Why it matters A roadside guess at a speed or a share of blame follows the file all the way, and it is usually wrong.
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Why it matters Without that number, finding the report later means a request that takes weeks.
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Why it matters Photographs that stay on a phone are photographs that leave with the phone.
The company’s filing kit
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Why it matters A file that passes between three people loses a week at each handover, and each handover loses a document.
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Why it matters An insurer’s first questions are about the vehicle, not about the crash.
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Why it matters Whether the trip was company business decides which policy the insurer looks at first.
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Why it matters Licence status is checked on every commercial file, and it is far quicker to record now than to reconstruct later.
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Why it matters Loss of use is a claimable head in many places, and only a day-by-day log will support it.
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Why it matters An injury claim runs on a different track from a bent panel, and it is the one that escalates.
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Why it matters Two versions of one incident is the most expensive kind of paperwork error there is.
Evidence you must not lose
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Why it matters Most dashcams overwrite themselves within days, and the overwrite is silent.
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Why it matters Speed, braking and harsh-event data are read in context, and the context is the hour before.
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Why it matters Fatigue is the first thing the other side looks for, and the first thing you want settled either way.
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Why it matters Resized copies pasted into a report lose the timestamps and coordinates that made them evidence.
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Why it matters A claim against the company often turns on whether the vehicle was fit to be on the road at all.
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Why it matters Routine deletion that carries on after a claim is known does far more damage than the deleted document ever would have.
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Why it matters Evidence nobody can find is evidence you do not have.
This mode is the other half of the section: the checks and the kit assembled before anything happens, rather than the evidence gathered after it. Every item that states a rule comes from an instrument quoted in one of the articles linked beside it; where a market has no published rule, the item is a question to put rather than a rule to follow.
The two-minute walk-around
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Why it matters The Highway Code asks for a weekly check before the journey and while the tyres are cold, because warm tyres read high. NHTSA's study of the phase before a crash found a tyre problem cited about three times as often on badly underinflated tyres as on correctly inflated ones.
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Why it matters Britain's legal floor is at least 1.6 mm across the central three-quarters around the whole circumference, and Spain's traffic authority states the same figure while adding that it is unwise to let a tyre get that far. Nothing in the legal minimum promises wet grip.
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Why it matters Rubber ages whether or not it is used and the car cannot report this. Michelin's guidance is an annual professional inspection after five years in service and replacement ten years from the date of manufacture, whatever the tread looks like.
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Why it matters The Highway Code says to check the levels at least weekly and gives the reason in one sentence: low brake fluid may result in brake failure and a crash. A puddle under a parked car is information.
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Why it matters The Highway Code requires lights, indicators, reflectors and number plates to be kept clean and clear, and headlights properly adjusted so they do not dazzle. Brake lights are the ones nobody checks, because you cannot see them from the driver's seat.
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Why it matters The Highway Code requires windscreens and windows to be free from obstructions to vision, and Spain's DGT advises replacing wipers as soon as they lose effectiveness rather than at an interval. Interior glass gets dirty slowly and shows up as a haze in low sun.
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Why it matters Rules on securing a load differ by market and by vehicle, so treat this as a question to check for yours rather than as a rule we can state for you. The part that holds everywhere is that a load moves when the car brakes hard, and a hard brake is the moment you least want to be surprised.
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Why it matters The brakes report on themselves as soon as they are used. A pedal that travels further than it used to, a pull to one side, or a grinding noise each map onto something specific a workshop will find — the MOT manual treats a pad worn below 1.5 mm as a dangerous defect.
In the glovebox
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Why it matters The NAIC's consumer guide gives it as a plain instruction: keep your proof-of-insurance card in your car at all times, and most states require this. It is reached for three times in one incident — by an officer, by the other driver, and by you when you call the claims line printed on it.
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Why it matters It differs by market, so confirm yours rather than assume. In the United Kingdom the police may ask for the driving licence, the insurance certificate and the MOT certificate, and gov.uk states that a driver who does not have them has seven days to take them to a police station.
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Why it matters When the other driver has no card, the NAIC's fallback is to write down their driver's licence number and licence plate number. Write down — the only recording device at a scene that cannot run out of battery, crack in the impact, or be taken away as evidence.
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Why it matters Spain's DGT tells drivers it is necessary to fill in the Declaración Amistosa de Accidente, that all the data of the vehicles and the damage must go on it, and that the form speeds up dealings between those involved and the insurance companies. The other driver will not have one.
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Why it matters The Highway Code describes a warning triangle at least 45 metres behind the vehicle and then adds: never use them on motorways. Spain's traffic authority states that from 1 January 2026 the connected V-16 beacon is the only legal pre-signalling device, and its stated advantage is that it is deployed without getting out of the vehicle.
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Why it matters Spain's DGT publishes one distance figure: a person wearing a reflective vest is visible at 150 metres. A vest per seat rather than one for the driver is a reasonable choice and not a published rule, which is why it belongs here as a question rather than as an instruction.
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Why it matters Read as memory the scene list is unreasonable; read as a printed page it is one side of paper. This tool's driver mode is that page — print it and put it in the glovebox rather than trusting anyone to recall it at the roadside.
On the phone
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Why it matters The paper copies are the primary ones; these are the redundancy. A photograph on a phone with no battery is not a document, which is exactly why neither half of the kit replaces the other.
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Why it matters The NAIC's instruction for opening a claim is to call the phone number on your proof-of-insurance card as soon as possible. Your insurer's response clocks — acknowledge, decide, pay — generally run from the notice you give, and they are in the jurisdiction data on this site.
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Why it matters The Texas Department of Insurance makes the point about household contents and it transfers: most insurers want a record of the damaged items before they will pay, and not having one can delay payment. A dated set settles whether the scuff on the rear quarter was already there — one small argument, ended outright.
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Why it matters The Texas Department of Insurance's storage advice is the sharper half of the instruction: keep the record away from the thing it describes. A record that burns with the car is not a record.
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Why it matters The phone is the better camera, the better notebook and the better map, and it runs out of battery late in the day, when traffic is worst. Its screen also cracks in exactly the impact that created the need for it.
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Why it matters The paper half of the kit carries the things you cannot reconstruct on a dying screen: your own policy number, the claims line, the car's registration details, and one person who should hear about this from you.
The articles behind these items
This mode is the other half of the section: the checks and the kit assembled before anything happens, rather than the evidence gathered after it. Every item that states a rule comes from an instrument quoted in one of the articles linked beside it; where a market has no published rule, the item is a question to put rather than a rule to follow.
The daily walk-around and the defect report
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Why it matters Britain's roadworthiness guidance sets that minimum explicitly. The failure mode in a fleet is not that checks are not done — it is that they are done and not recorded, or recorded and not routed to anyone who can authorise a repair.
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Why it matters The United States federal rule enumerates them for the driver's report: service and parking brakes, steering, lighting devices and reflectors, tyres, horn, wipers, mirrors, coupling devices, wheels and rims, and emergency equipment. That list is as good a spine for a company's sheet as anything a consultant will sell.
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Why it matters Britain's guidance enumerates the details a defect report records: the registration or identification mark, the date, the defects or symptoms, the reporter's name, who the defect was reported to, the rectification work and the date it was completed.
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Why it matters The two regimes point opposite ways. The United States federal rule says a driver need not prepare a report where no defect is discovered; Britain asks for nil reporting, where each driver confirms a check was carried out and no defects found. A file of nil returns distinguishes a clean vehicle from an unchecked one; a file of silences does not.
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Why it matters Britain requires that defect reports be given to a responsible person with sufficient authority to ensure appropriate action is taken, and records who the defect was reported to. A report that reaches a tray has reached nobody who can spend money, and the sheet is complete while the van is still in service.
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Why it matters A signed check sheet with a defect on it and no closing entry is worse than no sheet at all, because it proves the company knew. The same instrumentation that proves the check happened proves the repair did not.
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Why it matters Britain asks that reports listing defects be kept as part of the maintenance record for at least 15 months, together with the assessment, the rectification work and the repairer, and safety inspection records for at least 15 months. Check the retention period that binds you rather than adopting that one.
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Why it matters The United States federal rule lists what a commercial power unit carries and requires every item in the vehicle: a fire extinguisher, spare fuses, and the warning devices. A depot inventory proving the company owns triangles is not compliance, and a vest in a supervisor's office is a vest nobody is wearing on a verge.
The articles behind these items
This list assembles a file. It does not assess an injury and it cannot — no list can. Every item below that states a rule quotes an instrument cited in the guides linked underneath; the rest are just the papers that turn out to be hard to get later.
The treatment record
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Why it matters Under the United States federal privacy rule an individual «has a right of access to inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about the individual in a designated record set» (45 CFR 164.524). The file is not something you have to guess at.
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Why it matters Payment clocks hang off a document, not off the crash. Florida makes benefits «overdue if not paid within 30 days after the insurer is furnished written notice of the fact of a covered loss and of the amount of same» (Fla. Stat. § 627.736(4)(b)); New York makes them overdue thirty days «after the claimant supplies proof of the fact and amount of loss sustained» (N.Y. Ins. Law § 5106(a)). Until something is supplied, nothing is late.
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Why it matters Florida’s no-fault benefit applies only where «the individual receives initial services and care pursuant to subparagraph 1. within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident» (Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1)(a)). That is a condition of coverage, not a judgement about an injury, and most markets do not have one. The jurisdiction notes on the guides below show whether yours does.
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Why it matters Where a medical opinion is commissioned, the expert is expected to identify «(a) the medical records that have been reviewed; and (b) the medical records considered relevant to the claim» (Ministry of Justice, Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury Claims in Road Traffic Accidents). A record that was never created cannot be reviewed, listed or relied on.
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Why it matters Spain’s motor liability statute imposes a duty running toward the insurer: from the moment the harm occurs the injured person must give the collaboration needed for the appointed medical services to examine them and follow the course of the injuries, and a failure to do so counts against them on default interest (TRLRCSCVM art. 37). Other markets are silent. This item is a question, not an instruction.
The contemporaneous account
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Why it matters Rule 803(5) of the United States Federal Rules of Evidence admits a recorded recollection — a record on a matter «the witness once knew about but now cannot recall well enough to testify fully and accurately», «made or adopted by the witness when the matter was fresh in the witness’s memory». Freshness is not a quality that can be added afterwards.
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Why it matters The same rule has a sting the lists never mention: a recorded recollection «may be read into evidence but may be received as an exhibit only if offered by an adverse party» (Fed. R. Evid. 803(5)). The notebook is not handed to the court because you wrote it.
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Why it matters Rule 803(3) admits a statement of a then-existing «physical condition (such as mental feeling, pain, or bodily health)» but excludes «a statement of memory or belief to prove the fact remembered or believed». The day’s entry sits on one side of that line and the weekend’s reconstruction on the other.
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Why it matters Minnesota counts as unable to work «a person who misses time from work, including reasonable travel time, and loses income, vacation, or sick leave benefits» (Minn. Stat. § 65B.44, subd. 3). The travel and the used-up leave are claimable facts that almost nobody writes down.
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Why it matters No instrument requires this. A record that runs only while things are bad is a record of a decision to write, and it is the part people regret not having.
Income and the things you had to pay for
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Why it matters Kansas computes the loss arithmetically: for a regularly employed or regularly self-employed person, monthly earnings are one twelfth of the annual earnings at the time of injury (K.S.A. 40-3103). The figure runs off the year before the crash, so that is the document to ask for.
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Why it matters Minnesota counts «a person who misses time from work, including reasonable travel time, and loses income, vacation, or sick leave benefits» (Minn. Stat. § 65B.44, subd. 3). Leave you had to spend is a loss the statute names, and a letter that says only «absent» does not evidence it.
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Why it matters Both statutes that set the benefit at eighty-five per cent subtract the same thing. Minnesota reduces it by income from substitute work actually performed «or by income the injured person would have earned in available appropriate substitute work which the injured person was capable of performing but unreasonably failed to undertake»; North Dakota’s «work loss» is reduced the same way (N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-01). It is the one fact in this section that can be used against you, which is why it is better recorded than remembered.
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Why it matters Minnesota’s income loss «includes the costs incurred by a self-employed person to hire substitute employees to perform tasks which are necessary to maintain the income of the injured person, which are normally performed by the injured person, and which cannot be performed because of the injury» (Minn. Stat. § 65B.44, subd. 3). A cost paid out is evidenced by having paid it; a shortfall has to be inferred.
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Why it matters Spain’s system is the only instrument read for this section that says how variable income is proved at all: TRLRCSCVM art. 143.2 sets the rule for establishing lost earnings where there is no fixed wage. Where your own market has no such rule, the method is whatever you can document.
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Why it matters Three of the four statutes read for this section define the household-help benefit by an expense that was actually incurred — Minnesota reimburses expenses reasonably incurred in obtaining «usual and necessary substitute services» (Minn. Stat. § 65B.44). An expense that left no receipt did not, for these purposes, happen.
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Why it matters Florida makes it an unfair practice to fail «to promptly provide a reasonable explanation in writing to the insured of the basis in the insurance policy … for denial of a claim» (Fla. Stat. § 626.9541(1)(i)). Spain requires a reasoned offer or a reasoned refusal, and a party who keeps the final expert medical report out of the file may not produce it in court later (TRLRCSCVM art. 7). The insurer’s reasoning is itself a document.
The articles behind these items
Why a list, and why this order
A car insurance claim is decided mostly by evidence that has a short shelf life. The positions the cars came to rest in survive until traffic moves. The other driver’s documents survive until they drive away. A witness survives about five minutes. Meanwhile the questions that decide the money — how fast, from which direction, what condition was the car in, was anybody hurt — get asked weeks later, by somebody who was not there and who has a file rather than a memory.
So the list is ordered by expiry rather than by importance. The items at the top are not the most consequential; they are the ones you lose if you do not do them now. The items further down are the ones that decide the figure, and most of them are still available a month later.
The two lists are genuinely different
A driver is documenting an accident. A company is documenting an accident and its own position at the same time, and the second part is the one that gets neglected. Whether a trip was company business decides which policy an insurer looks at first. Whether the vehicle was fit to be on the road is what a claim against the company frequently turns on. Whether a driver’s licence was in order on the day is checked on every commercial file, and it takes thirty seconds to record now and a fortnight to reconstruct later.
The company list therefore has a section a driver’s list does not need at all: the evidence that destroys itself. Dashcams overwrite within days and do it silently. Telematics retention is a setting somebody chose once. Routine document deletion carries on running after a claim is known unless somebody stops it, and stopping it — a litigation hold, in as many words — is the single most valuable thing on that section, because failing to stop it converts a document problem into a credibility problem.
What the list will not tell you
It will not tell you how long you have. Deadlines are the one part of a claim that is entirely local: the period to sue, the period the insurer has to answer you, the notice your own policy requires, all differ by state and by country and some of them are counted in business days. The list says to diarise them; it does not say what they are, because a number invented here would be read as the rule. The jurisdiction pages carry the real periods with the statute beside each one, and the deadline calculator turns them into dates.
It also will not tell you what you are entitled to. Nothing here is an assertion about coverage, liability or the value of anything. It is a list of things that are cheaper to do than to wish you had done.
Claim deadline calculator · Crash simulator · Rules where you are
Frequently asked questions
Is this a legal requirement checklist?
No. Nothing here is a rule, and the list deliberately asserts none. What a law or a policy requires of you differs by where the accident happened and by what you signed, and those specifics live on the jurisdiction pages, cited to the statute or the regulator. This is the practical layer underneath: the things that help a claim regardless of which set of rules turns out to apply.
Why does every item explain itself?
Because a checklist nobody understands is a checklist nobody finishes. Most of these items look like overkill in the ten minutes after a crash, and the reason they are here is a specific failure that shows up six weeks later — a valuation argued on mileage nobody photographed, a witness whose name nobody took, a tow invoice nobody kept. The line beside each item is the argument for doing it while it is still possible.
Where are my ticks stored?
In your browser, under a single key, and nowhere else. They are not sent to Ariski, they are not attached to an account and they are not readable from another device. If you clear site data or open the page in a private window, they are gone, which is why the list prints.
What makes the company list different?
Three things a driver does not have to think about. The company is documenting authority — who was driving, on whose instruction, doing what — because that is what decides which policy an insurer looks at first. It is documenting downtime, because loss of use is claimable in many places and only a day-by-day record supports it. And it is preserving evidence that deletes itself: dashcam footage that overwrites in days, telematics that rolls off, maintenance records that a routine retention policy will quietly bin once a claim is already known.
What is a litigation hold, and why is it on the list?
It is an instruction, issued the moment a claim or a lawyer’s letter arrives, to stop every routine deletion that touches the vehicle, the driver and the trip. It is on the list because the damage from automated deletion continuing after a claim is known is almost always worse than anything the deleted document contained. A company that cannot produce the footage looks like a company that did not want to.
Can I use this if the accident was weeks ago?
Yes, and the later sections are the ones that matter then. The scene items will be closed to you, but the filing and follow-up items — a written estimate you commissioned, the valuation report behind a total-loss figure, a written reason for any refusal, a dated log of every call — are what claims actually turn on once the photographs are taken.
This guide explains how car insurance claims generally work. It is not legal advice, does not create a lawyer–client relationship, and is not a statement of any insurer's or regulator's position. Rules change and differ by jurisdiction; check the cited instrument and, where money or injury is at stake, consult a licensed professional in your jurisdiction.