By Arnab Dey
Imagine this.
You’re driving lawfully, and all of a sudden, another vehicle strikes you from the right side. And unfortunately so, the accident ends up causing damage to your four-wheeler, inflicting a potential concussion, and much more.
So, who’s going to take responsibility for causing such mayhem?
The person who struck you, obviously. Nonetheless, you’ll have to hire a Pasadena Personal Injury Attorney and file a claim to make them do that.
Here’s how you can do it.
How To File A Personal Injury Claim?
In this section, we have provided a step-by-step guide to filing a personal injury claim properly. Make sure to follow them properly to file your claim successfully.
Step – 1: Obtain Medical Care
If you’ve been involved in an unfortunate accident or sustained an injury, be sure to opt for medical attention immediately. It may include going to a primary care clinic or an emergency room. And make sure to keep all of your medical records in a single place. This way, you can offer the same in court and get compensated by the guilty party accordingly.
Step – 2: Prepare Your Documentation
Next, you should start preparing your documentation, including your medical bill, damage to the car, and the insurance claim. Besides, it’ll also be helpful for you to collect as much about the damage you’ve sustained to prove your claim correctly. Providing the proper documentation will be ideal for building your case and succeeding in the end.
Related Resource: Grasping for Crutches: 7 Myths About Personal Injury Claims Explained
Step – 3: Hire An Attorney
The harsh truth is – you cannot really prepare your documentation correctly without the help of an attorney. Hence, if possible, try to call your lawyer right after you’ve been injured. And, don’t talk with anyone or sign anything before your lawyer reaches the spot. Otherwise, if you say anything that’s critical to the case, it can be used against you in court.
Step – 4: Investigate The Injury And Accident Again
After you’ve hired a lawyer, you should ask them to look over your personal injury case from the beginning. Their work report may involve investigating the site, looking at your medical documents, and talking with the witnesses. It will help them organize the case properly and take care of any loopholes that may occur during the process.
Step – 5: Try Establishing Negligence
Almost every personal injury case tends to be centered upon a single subject – negligence. For example, it might be caused by someone who was driving under the influence of alcohol or something as such. Now, if you can prove the same in your case, you’ll win your case almost instantly. Take the help of your attorney to strategize your moves in this regard.
Step – 6: Notice Of Claim
If you want to pursue a case of personal injury, you’ll need to inform the involved party about it quickly. This way, they cannot back out from the claim saying that you didn’t let them know your decision beforehand. The notice of claim is usually delivered through an attorney, a law enforcement officer, or a professional processing server.
Step – 7: Start With Your Settlement Talks
The attorney of the claimant can always make demands about the settlement to the defendant before it goes to court. And when this happens, both the lawyers will try to negotiate the price between them and find a middle ground somewhere. Usually, most of the cases tend to get settled at this point. But, if it doesn’t, the case will get court-bound till the end.
Step – 8: File Your Lawsuit
Considering your settlement talks didn’t go the right way, you should start working on filing a case quickly. It, in turn, will prompt the initiation of the discovery phase, where each party will offer their findings of the investigations. It’s crucial that you’re being truthful from your side. Otherwise, the case might get canceled, and you may get sued instead.
Step – 9: Mediation
While the case is ongoing, your lawyer will have another opportunity to settle it following the completion of the discovery stage. Also known as “mediation,” this step usually involves a congregation between the claimant, the defendant, and a third party. But, if the mediator fails to achieve a sense of compromise, the case will then advance to a trial.
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
Hopefully, we have offered enough data about how you can file a personal injury claim in the previous section. Now, let’s focus on the queries that you may have about the topic. It will surely help you clarify everything from the front.
1. What Can Be Considered As A Personal Injury?
A personal injury, in essence, is a result of someone else’s negligence or carelessness that’s caused physical harm to you. If you file a claim for the same, it’ll entitle you to a certain amount of financial compensation for your overall expenditure.
2. What Are The Two Types Of Injury Claims?
The aspect of an injury claim can be categorized into two segments – punitive damage and compensatory damage. The type, or strategy, regarding the case will depend on the type of claim you’ve filed in the court.
3. How Long Do You Have To Put In A Personal Injury Claim?
If you’re living in Pasadena, you’ll have only two years of time before you can make your personal injury claim. However, the time limit will change for another state. Hence, before you start working on the same, make sure to go through your state’s law first!
In Conclusion
Filing a personal injury claim can be difficult, especially for someone who doesn’t have adequate knowledge about it. Hence, before you take a step, we’ll ask you to hire and talk to an attorney first.
Hopefully, they can offer the right suggestion and help you get the most out of your claim. Just make sure that you’re not hiding anything from them, and you’ll be fine.
Anyway, now, we’ll conclude our article. If you have something else to ask, feel free to use the comment section below. We’ll answer you as quickly as possible!
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