One day, your life is going swimmingly until suddenly it’s not. You’ve got everything in order: the great family, the fantastic job, and all is good with the world. However, one day, and without any warning, you’re involved in some kind of incident that causes your life to turn 180. While you might never believe that accidents can happen to you that will utterly change the course of your life, the fact of the matter is that we never know what will happen. But, as with everything in life, it’s not what happens to you but what you do about it. If you’ve been an accident victim, you are very likely entitled to recompense to cover all the damages, ranging from your medical expenses to lost wages due to time off work. Although the process may seem a little daunting at first, armed with the correct information, you will find that you can sail through it and hopefully come out on the other side with everything you need to focus purely on your recovery.
Consulting With A Personal Injury Attorney
Once your situation has stabilized, you are going to need professional help with this kind of task. The legal system can be complicated for the average person to decipher, and without someone trained in the law and with the requisite expertise to guide you through what can often appear like a labyrinth, you are more ikey to fail than not. Even if your case seems cut and dry, without proper representation, you may end up with a considerably smaller compensation package than you would otherwise, even when accounting for their fees. Regarding fees, this supportive St. Louis injury lawyer notes that they work on a contingency fee basis, meaning that if they are unable to recover compensation for you successfully, you won’t have to pay them. This fee structure is preferable as it ensures they will work harder on your behalf, and you won’t need to spend a penny until/ unless you win. When you set up an appointment with a personal injury lawyer, your initial consultation will be a discovery process where you can discuss the situation with them, and they can give you advice on how to proceed.
In some cases, it could be that you simply don’t have a case or that you have shared liability, meaning that you might have also been at fault. In either circumstance, you might need to consider if you want to proceed carefully. However, if you and your chosen attorney believe you have a case and want to begin proceedings, you will move on to the next steps.
Gathering Necessary Documentation And Evidence
Once you’ve established your case with your legal counsel, it’s vital to gather all documentation that might be necessary for a successful suit. Now, that is an easy sentence to write down, but when you’re in a position of not knowing what to do, it may have been written well in a foreign language. Although all cases will be different in some regard, the key documents to gather will help you prove liability and the extent of the damages the incident has caused you. In most situations, these will include:
- Medical records: We will cover this later as this will prove to be a vital piece of evidence allowing a court to come up with a fair settlement offer.
- Police report: If your accident involved the emergency services, you really ought to get a police report of their interpretation of what occurred.
- Photographs and videos: if you managed to acquire photo or video evidence at the scene either from your own action or from onlookers, you can use this to prove your case.
- Witness statements: It’s not always possible to get these statements, but if you hire the right lawyer, they can often send their paralegals to gather them on your behalf.
- Financial records: You will need to prove how much you’re losing due to the injury if you want to claim it back, and having a record of your salary, such as wage stubs, will be an enormous help.
Negotiating With Insurance Companies
For most personal injury claims, it will be the job of an insurance company to pay out the total compensation. But if you have ever dealt with an insurance provider, you will know that they will go through hell and back to try and reduce the amount they owe. This step really requires the services of a lawyer who should have plenty of experience dealing with these guys and know the correct ways to convince them to pay out. Moreover, although the process can often take a long time, a quality attorney should be able to secure you some form of interim payments to ensure you don’t end up deeply in debt before the compensation has even been paid out.
Documenting Medical Treatment And Expenses
For most folks, their medical bills will probably be the costliest part of this entire affair outside of any lost earnings. We’re not here to debate the issues of the medical industry, but the fact remains that they are going to be enormous in most cases. Personal injury claims work because the negligent party (or their insurer) will only pay the amount you are owed, so you will need to show them how much you have already spent on your recovery and any potential ongoing costs.
Assessing The Value Of Your Claim
As we alluded to, you will only get paid the amount that the incident has cost you. This means you need to get any ideas of a multimillion-dollar payout out of your head (unless that is what you have lost, of course) and focus instead on assessing the value of your claim. While you might not end up with the kind of settlement often seen in fiction, it should be fair, and in most cases, there will also be some provision for your legal costs. In other words, the idea is to ensure that the accident won’t leave you worse off than before other than of any specific injuries you might have received as a result of the accident.
Although the entire personal injury process can seem to be highly convoluted, with the right legal team by your side, you will make it far less so. The main points to follow generally include documenting your costs, consulting with a lawyer, and ensuring that you have as much evidence as possible to provide a clear-cut case.
