As you recover from an accident in which you hurt yourself, it is quite reasonable that you might be contemplating about claiming compensation for injuries and damages. Filing a claim for compensation for a personal injury needs some proper preparation to ensure that you can build a strong case. It requires gathering information about how the accident happened and who is responsible for it and then providing evidence to support your claim. Just reconstructing the case is not enough unless you have enough evidence to bolster your claim. Injuries alone do not make you eligible for claiming compensation because you must prove that the accident happened due to the negligence of the other party. Holding the other party responsible for the act that caused injuries forms the basis of filing a claim for personal injury and is most critical for ensuring a fair settlement.
Despite undergoing medical treatment, you must carry on with the process of preparation for filing the claim. The lawyer you hire from dennishernandez.com will be on your side to ensure that you complete the preparation and get ready for filing the claim within the stipulated time. Every state has fixed timelines for various stages of the claim filing process, and you must comply with it. The lawyer is aware of the stipulations of time and will take the right step at the right time that will become clear as you keep reading this article.
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Notifying people about your intention of filing claim
Even before you take the first step in filing the claim for compensation for personal injury, it is your responsibility to inform people about your intention of filing the claim. From the date of the accident, there is a given timeline within which you must inform all people who you feel are responsible for the accident that caused injuries to you. It applies for all personal injury cases except those involving the government or any government employee. Make sure that you notify the concerned people within a few days of the accident to stay on course for filing the claim.
Even if you are undecided whether to file the claim, it makes sense in notifying people so that the stage is ready, and you can make the decision later. Timely notification will ensure that you are on the right side of law and give no chance to others to prevent you from filing the claim subsequently. Having done it, you can take your time to file the claim with any insurance company or government agency.
Personal injury claim filing deadline
You must act very fast in filing the claim if any government employee or entity is involved in the accident. The time given is at the most 30 days in some states, but it can be as much as a year in some other states. Under no circumstances, there is any relaxation of the time, and you must be careful to abide by it so that there is no room for declining your claim. Another aspect that you must be cautious about is to furnish correct and complete information as the inability to do so can result in disqualification. To know about the timelines, you can contact the office of your city or county attorney.
Settle with the insurer
The insurance company of the defendant should be your first port of call for the settlement of the claim, and you must have the right strategies in place to deal with them. Majority of claim settlement for personal injury cases happen at this level with a small percentage going to the court. Your lawyer is the best person to deal with insurance companies. The insurance companies also engage lawyers to protect their interest by making you accept a lower amount of compensation. Your lawyer would arrange for mediation by involving all parties, including insurance settlers, to reach a mutually agreeable settlement. The process should work in most cases, but if it fails, and then the only way left is to file a lawsuit to claim the right compensation.
How soon to file a lawsuit after an injury
In case you decide to file a lawsuit to claim compensation for personal injury, then you must abide by the timeline set for it. You must not waste too much time negotiating with the insurance company in case you feel that it would lead you nowhere. You must have enough time in hand to file the lawsuit on time. Every state has its timeline for filing a lawsuit for personal injury cases, and there is no second chance available. Once you miss the deadline, you lose the opportunity forever.
Stay prepared to file the claim for compensation
To file the claim for compensation, there are lots of things to do following the accident so that all information and facts are available ready at hand for building the case.
Soon after the accident, you must start gathering as much information as possible about the accident and injuries. It will aid you to reconstruct the events to establish the fault of the other party that caused the accident and resulted in injuries. You must record the financial losses undergone by you, including loss of earning and even highlight the impact that the injuries can have on your future life.
Besides gathering and preserving physical evidence to establish the fault of the other party, you must also take photographs of the accident site to strengthen your claim. Talk to people at the accident site to gather more information that you were not aware of earlier or had escaped your attention. Even ask some of them about their willingness to give evidence in support of your claim. You must accomplish all these tasks speedily because if you take longer time to go back to the scene of the accident, the ground realities could change and make it difficult for you to build a strong case.
Although the effects of the accident on your health would continue for some time, you must keep doing the tasks mentioned above so that you can file your claim on time. Your lawyer can do all the heavy lifting on your behalf in case you are unable to move around.
