Getting involved in traffic accident costs you a lot of time and money. Sometimes, it takes several months for treatment. Or even, it might need you to take a month off in work for hospitalization. Even in the case where the at-fault party financially covers all of your damages in the end, you can get the compensation money only after you have done all the treatment and settlement with the at-fault party.
Generally speaking, an at-fault driver, which is an insurance contractor, claims payout to insurance companies so that they can compensate for the victim’s damages. However, CALI exceptionally allows traffic accident victims to directly apply for the payout and also allows them to receive part of them well in advance of the end of treatment. That is one of the biggest features of CALI, which is intentionally designed for the relief of car accident victims. In this article, we explain the merits of applying for CALI's compensation by yourself and how to do it.
Merits of applying for CALI's payout by yourself
The at-fault party’s voluntary insurance company usually applies for CALI’s payout on behalf of a car accident victim. Generally, the total of the insurance payout, including CALI and voluntary insurance, is sent to victims only after the settlement with the at-fault party. The voluntary insurance company sends the victim money including CALI and their own payout at once. However, we recommend to apply for CALI’s payout by yourself as soon as possible instead of waiting for the payment until the settlement is over. Here is why.
CALI’s payout is stand-alone. It’s not included by voluntary insurance's payout
Receiving the CALI's payout is a promised right for almost all the traffic accident victims. Since the payout is generally transferred by voluntary insurance companies, many people tend to misunderstand CALI’s payout is part of voluntary insurance payout. But it's not. Voluntary insurance companies sometimes use the misunderstanding to make people lower the estimation of the possible amount of total payout. For preventing that, self application is recommended.
Get payout as soon as possible
If your injury doesn’t easily recover, and it takes more time than you expected, you might start to feel financially insecure. So, get part of the compensation from CALI for peace of mind. Sometimes, the at-fault party’s insurance company hesitates to compensate for your medical expenses, especially when they think you were partially negligent in the traffic accident. (See Percentage of negligence. ) On the other hand, CALI always promptly compensates for the victim’s damages if the victim was not 100% negligent in the traffic accident. So sometimes, it’s way quicker to get compensation money if you apply for CALI’s payout by yourself.
Besides, if you’re financially stable, it’s easier to think about filing a suit in the case where the settlement with the at-fault party fails and cannot get enough compensation from them.
How to make self application for CALI's payout
Get a Traffic Accident Certificate
To apply for the payout of CALI, you will need two information: at-fault party’s voluntary insurance company's name and at-fault party’s certificate number of CALI. A Certificate of Traffic Accident has these two information. Get it to obtain them. See the article on Certification of Traffic Accident (交通事故証明書 -Kotsujiko Shoumeisyo-).
Contact at-fault party’s voluntary insurance company and prepare documents
To make self application for CALI's payout, contact GIROJ via the at-fault party’s voluntary insurance company. Because voluntary insurance companies are the official agent of CALI, they have to support victims to apply for CALI’s payout.
The voluntary insurance company will let you know what documents you have to prepare. After you prepare all the documents and send them to the company, they check all the documents and forward them to GIROJ CALI Claim Surveys Office. The claim surveys office conducts research on your case. If there are no problems, it reports the result to the voluntary insurance company. And the CALI's payout will be transferred to you via the voluntary insurance company.
Here are the documents you have to prepare.
- Automobile liability insurance claim for payment and payment instructions (standard form of liability insurance)
- Traffic accident certificate
- Accident occurrence report
- Medical certificate / diagnosis remuneration statement
- Transportation expense statement
- Medical certificate of residual disability(if any)
- Certificate of lost wages(if any)
- Certificate of nursing (if any)
- Receipt compensated by at-fault driver(if any)