by Zayed Al-Sayyed

Personal InjuryMarch 25, 20210 comments

How to File a Personal Injury Claim

Whether you were injured on private property or public land, personal injury covers a large range of incidents and accidents. Not only does the location of your injury matter, but also the nature of your injury. Needless to say, no two personal injury cases are going to be exactly the same, which is why talking to a personal injury attorney can help you determine how to move forward with your case.

In this article, we’ll cover the 3 questions you should ask when deciding how to file a personal injury claim.

1. Will an Insurance Policy Cover This Accident or Incident?

Is someone else legally responsible for your injury? If you believe so, one of the first things to do is see if that person has insurance coverage that would pay on behalf of the negligent party. For instance, if you have been injured in a car accident, does the other driver have insurance? If you fell on someone else’s property, are they carrying any sort of liability coverage? You’ll want to find this information out as doing so can help you determine whether or not you’ll be able to recovery money if you are awarded damages should the case go to trial.

Just because you win a judgment in court does not mean that the defendant has the means to pay you, especially if they don’t have insurance or have little to no assets. Additionally, you’ll want to consider the extent of your injuries. Does your own insurance cover your injuries? Were you seriously hurt? Is it clearly the other person’s fault? Sometimes filing a lawsuit against someone who has no insurance costs more than its worth. If, however, it does make sense to file a lawsuit, you’ll want to ask yourself this next question…

2. Should I Hire a Personal Injury Attorney?

If you don’t know how to file a personal injury claim on your own, it makes sense to reach out to an expert. Unless the case is very cut and dry, it’s likely in your best interest to at least discuss your case with a lawyer and see what options you have. On many occasions, clients have been given offers to resolve their claims before they hire an attorney. The offers are typically very nominal amounts of money. Insurance companies do this in order to get a person to agree to give up their claim for the small amount of money. In most cases, a personal injury can secure a lot more money for a client with the proper case workup.

Talking to an attorney doesn’t mean you have to hire one, and many personal injury lawyers will provide free consultations to discuss your case and come up with some options for you.

After talking with a personal injury attorney, you can then ask yourself the final question…

3. Should I File a Lawsuit?

Most personal injury cases are settled before they ever make it to trial. In fact, you don’t need to go to court or even file a lawsuit to collect compensation for your injuries. If the at-fault individual has insurance, you can file a 3^rd party claim against their policy. You’ll need to get their insurance carrier and policy number to kickstart the process, but in many cases, this is sufficient to cover your needs.

If you have recently been injured and would like to talk to an attorney about how to handle a potential case, please reach out to us at https://alsayyedlaw.com/ and we will be happy to see how we can assist you.