3 Steps To Filing A Personal Injury Claim And Lawsuit
Posted on: 18 November 2016
If you have been in a car accident, you are probably considering filing a personal injury lawsuit. A lawsuit may be the best option for you to get what is owed you, but before you start filing lawsuits, you need to take some steps. Here are some steps that should be taken before you file a lawsuit.
1. Objectively Determine The Amount You Are Owed
First, you need to go through and determine how much money you are owed because of the accident. This is a time to get out all of the medical bills, any time you took off work, or factor in the amount of money you lost if you had to quit your job, how much money you lost in property damage such as damage to the car, children's car seats, belongings inside the car, and so forth. All of these things should be looked at objectively, and in ways you can prove them. If you don't have a medical bill proving that you received a service, it will be hard to include it in the amount owed. Thus, pull together all of the documentation that you can about the accident explaining how much money you lost.
2. File A Claim With The Insurance Provider
The second step is to file a personal injury claim with the insurance provider of the at-fault party. You should have received the insurance information from the other party and through this company is where you file a claim. This is not legal action; it is simply a breakdown of expenses owed to you. Then the insurance provider will go through and determine how much of the claim, if any, they will pay. In some cases you will get the full amount; in others you will be denied everything. Most likely the amount offered you will be somewhere between the two.
After you get the number from the insurance company, you can determine if the amount is reasonable for the injuries sustained, and decide if you will take the settlement, or file a personal injury lawsuit.
3. File A Personal Injury Lawsuit
If the provider comes back with a number that is not acceptable, you can then file a personal injury lawsuit. This is when you meet with an attorney and you either sue the at-fault party or you go back to the insurance company and try to get what you are owed. The attorney will decide who is best to go after. You should never file a lawsuit based on revenge; it should be based on facts and numbers.
By following these steps, you can get what you are owed from an auto accident. Contact a firm like Brownfield Law Office to learn more.
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