If you or your family member got severely injured in a road accident and that too, because of someone else’s negligence, you have the right to seek an injury claim for all your losses. During the event of an accident, you might not have the emotional energy to think about filing injury claims; but it is important to compensate for all your monetary losses.
Before reading the general guidelines about getting your injury claim, you must know that every injury case is different, and so is its timeline. Factors like the severity of the injury, the defendant’s cooperation, and the case’s complexity play a major role in deciding how long the case will be running.
Read on to know the various steps you need to take in order to successfully get your personal injury claim.
Step1: Seek Immediate Medical Care
As soon as your family member gets into an accident, make sure to take them for immediate medical attention. Though sometimes you might think the injury is not severe enough to be taken to the hospital, many injuries appear quite later than the time of the accident. So, common sense would suggest you take them for a quick medical examination. Additionally, all your medical records will also serve as evidence later at the time of filing a personal injury claim.
Step 2: Document all the Medical Records
If you happen to take multiple treatments and medications from your healthcare provider, make sure you document all the medical records related to the injury. Be it all the medical bills, test reports, over-the-counter medications, or anything that could be used as evidence to dominate your claim application.
Step 3: Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer
Though you might skip taking the help of a personal injury lawyer, they can actually help you get potential rewards for your requested claim. However, please note that there will be different attorneys for different injury cases. For instance, if you got into a rideshare accident, it’s best if you seek help from a rideshare accident lawyer. Similarly, if you got into a truck accident, you should contact legal professionals who deal with truck accident injury cases.
A lawyer will interview the victim and the family about the details of the accident and will ask for all the potential medical records. He/she may also collaborate with accident reconstruction specialists to help build the client’s case well. Hence, it is crucial you keep all the information and medical records that can serve as potential witnesses during a settlement case.
Step 4: Serve Notice of Claim
Whenever a party wishes to file a personal injury claim, they have to go through the ‘service of process’ where they need to professionally inform all the involved parties of their intent to file suit. In most cases, the notice of claim is delivered personally by a professional process server, court official, or law enforcement officer.
Step 5: Talk About Settlement Deal
As soon as you hire a lawyer, they will try to make a settlement deal with the defendant’s lawyer or insurer before the case even goes to court. In most cases, both the defendant and the claimant agree to a settlement deal, and the case doesn’t lean forward, but in some cases, it’s not exactly the case. Also, make sure that you, as a victim, present your arguments well as it affects your claim to a significant degree.
Step 6: File a Lawsuit
The last step is to finally file a lawsuit against the defendant party when both the parties disagree to come to a mutual settlement price. This will mark the beginning of the discovery phase, where both the parties will do a complete investigation into each other’s represented case. Moreover, they are expected to provide truthful and transparent information about each other’s cases so as to help the jury come to a fair conclusion.
Apart from that, the lawyers also get another opportunity to settle the case with the help of a mediator. This phase involves the meeting of both the parties with a neutral third party ( a mediator) who helps both the claimant and the defendant come to a mutual agreement. However, if the mediator process also proves unsuccessful, the case then goes to trial.
The Bottom Line
The entire period of personal injury and getting its claim can be truly daunting. Hence, it becomes crucial that you have a legal professional by your side who can represent your case well and get you a rewarding deal.
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