When you are involved in a motor accident and the vehicle which caused the accident is insured, you can make an insurance claim.

As part of your claim, the insurance company would ask you for specific documents to prove that you were involved in an accident and the medical cost you incurred as a result of your accident.The insurance company would assess your claim and do its own investigations to determine whether your claim is genuine.

The insurance company may repudiate the claim upon its investigations. This means that you will not receive any compensation from the insurance company.One of the grounds for refusing a claim is that the  driver was using a falsified driving license which was not genuine at the time of the accident and hence was not authorized to drive.

Other possible grounds could be:

• The vehicle owner failed to take a motor insurance policy
• The policy  had expired at the time of the accident
• The vehicle which injured or killed the victim cannot be traced or identified

Once the claim is repudiated, the only option you have is to write a petition to the National Insurance Commission. The National Insurance Commission is the body which regulates all insurance companies in the country.

Under section 193(a) Insurance Act 2006, a person who has suffered injury or death through a motor accident and who is unable to make a claim from the insurance company may seek compensation from the Motor Compensation Fund. Only those who were injured after 1996 can benefit from the fund.

The compensation award given by the fund is purely voluntarily and the compensation claim would be far less than successful claim made to an insurance company.