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A Guide To Making A Personal Injury Claim

Have you recently been involved in an accident causing significant injury to your person? Were there costs incurred as a result of this injury, either medical costs or lost wages? If so, you may want to file a claim against the insurance company. Filing a claim against an insurance company is your right, but before you rush out and hire an attorney you may want to consider handling things from your end first. With many personal injury claims, some insurance companies may prefer to settle the matter out of court, and if that's the case, paying a fee to a personal injury lawyer may cost you more than the claim is worth. For your consideration, below we'll explain how to file a personal injury claim on your own.

by MarkWalters

Being involved in an accident can be a painful and traumatic experience, but as long as you didn't cause the accident, you may be at liberty to issue a claim. If you're considering this, there are two general ways to go about. The first and most familiar way is to enlist the services of an attorney and take the insurance company to court, but unless your case is extremely intricate or complicated this may be wholly unnecessary and ultimately quite expensive. The second strategy is to file a claim yourself, a route few people take, yet because of the manner in which these cases are handled, perhaps more people should. A large percentage of personal injury claims are handled outside the parameters of a court and by following a few simple steps you may be able to "go it alone." In this article we have outlined a simple strategy to follow if you decide to take that path.

If you're still at the "pondering" stage of the personal injury claim process that's okay (just don't ponder so long that the statute of limitations elapses), however you should think about completing the notification step. The notification step is where you will draft a professional letter to the other party (whether one or more people) in the accident to inform them you are considering filing a claim or pursuing legal action. While this is not a legal requirement, it may help strengthen your claim and keep you safe from any type of legal retribution.

Once you've made your intentions known to all applicable parties, the next phase of the personal injury claims process is to spell out just what you are seeking and submit it to the insurance company. In "insurance speak" this is known as the demand letter. The demand letter, in essence, serves as a receipt for the amount of money you are seeking from the insurance company and is absolutely crucial in any personal injury case. Wherever possible, try to include some form of documented proof that you incurred the costs for which you are seeking reimbursement, and for those costs which you don't have bills or receipts for, your best bet is to choose on the "high side" of a realistic number, understanding that the insurance agency will invariably try and negotiate that figure down.

Although you spelled out your demands clearly in the demand letter, don't be discouraged if the insurance company initially offers a much smaller amount. This is a normal part of the negotiations process, but don't be fooled into thinking you have to accept their first counter offer. If for any reason you are displeased by the amount the agency is offering, if you think their offer is unfair, you always have the option to pursue legal action and have a judge render the final decision.

Hiring a lawyer to handle your personal injury case may sound like the easy thing to do, but keep in mind that you'll usually wind up paying up to a third of your award in legal fees. To avoid this, follow the steps above and see if you can't navigate the process on your own. It could save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars in the long run.

About the Author: Frank Cole

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A Guide To Making A Personal Injury Claim