Third-Party Insurance Claim Documentation

A third-party claim is typically decided on paper. The adjuster reads a police report if one exists, speaks with the insured, reviews the claimant's account, and looks at whatever photographs arrive. Where the accounts differ, the physical layout often narrows the possibilities: which lane a vehicle could have been in, whether a driveway was visible from a given distance, where the damage sits on each vehicle.

Tennessee uses modified comparative fault, so how responsibility is divided between the parties matters to the outcome. Delator does not make that division or offer an opinion on it. The field record shows the location and the damage as they were on the date of the visit, and the adjuster, the attorneys, and if necessary the court draw the conclusions from it and from the other information they hold.

What tends to be missing from a claimant's file

Photographs taken at the roadside are usually close views of damage, shot quickly and without scale. They rarely show the approach, the traffic controls, or how the vehicles sat in relation to the lanes. A field visit fills in that context: the claimant's vehicle is photographed systematically, and the location is recorded from the directions each party traveled, with measurements where the setting allows.

Timing matters because third-party claims can move slowly while evidence moves fast. Vehicles are repaired or sold, debris is swept, and marks on the pavement fade with traffic and weather. Documentation gathered early can be handed to the claimant's attorney, sent with a claim submission, or held in the file. Delator delivers the material to the requesting party and takes no part in how the claim is presented.