There are a number of ways someone’s negligence can negatively affect you or cause you bodily harm. Car accidents are the most common with over six million accidents reported in the United States yearly on average.
But a personal injury claim can arise out of the poor care from a medical professional, the misuse of heavy machinery, animal assaults, and more.
The problem is that if you have suffered injuries and know you need to file personal injury claims, it can be difficult to even leave your house. In this case, you need to get professional help from a trusted personal injury lawyer who will take all the responsibility of collecting the needed documents and will eventually get the desired compensation. Besides, your lawyer will help you to get medical assistance and will provide you with all the legal coverage.
If you want to know how to file these claims from the comfort of your own home, we’ll show you how!
Must See – How Much Is Your Lawsuit Worth? Your Personal Injury Calculator
What You’ve (Hopefully) Already Done
If the accident has already happened, then you may be too late for this particular personal injury car accident advice. If you’re reading this to prepare for the inevitable then be sure to take some notes.
#1. Immediately Seek Medical Attention
If you think you need medical attention for anything, be sure to seek it right away. Either call emergency services yourself or ask someone else to do it for you if you can’t.
This is important, because:
- Your health and wellness are the top priority
- Personal injury claims may require (or benefit from) official paper trails proving you needed medical attention
Sometimes, people want to tough it out and don’t think they need to go to the hospital. Don’t do this; if necessary, seek medical attention right away!
#2. Exchange Information with the At-Fault Party
When someone else is responsible for the personal injury, you need to exchange information with them. You most likely will not be dealing with this person directly at any point after the accident.
Instead, you’ll be dealing with their insurance company, so you want to collect their:
- Name
- Contact information
- Name and contact information of their insurance company
Obviously, if we’re talking about a car accident, you’ll need their car insurance information.
#3. Take Photos – LOTS of Photos
Hopefully, you have a witness to the car accident, but you should also be taking as many photos as you can. Take out your smartphone and photograph your car, the other party’s car, and even the surrounding area if necessary.
Consider all of the questions that may be asked at some point in the future:
- What direction were you driving?
- What direction was the other party driving?
- How fast were you driving?
- How fast were they driving?
- What side and/or angle was the car hit?
- What were the driving conditions of the road at that place, day, and time?
Obviously, there can be a lot of factors at play, so it’s best to take as much evidence as you possibly can. This can aid in your personal injury claims case in the future.
#4. Call Police If Necessary
Just the same as seeking medical attention, you may not feel it’s necessary to call the authorities and you may not want to do it.
Avoid this thought process and call them. An accident is an emergency and the verification from a police officer can assist your claim greatly.
The officer will evaluate the scene of the accident, take statements, and eventually file a police report. This report can be used for your accident claim.
The Timeframe of Filing a Personal Injury Claim
So, the accident is now over. Hopefully, you’ve done the following:
- Sought medical attention
- Called the authorities
- Exchanged information with the other party
- Gathered as many witnesses, photos, etc. as possible
At this point, you may be wondering how to file a claim. In fact, you may be wondering how long after an accident can you file an insurance claim?
After all, sometimes we don’t realize how bad something is until later down the road. For example, you may have gotten into an accident but figured it was no big deal at the time.
Maybe your car only got a scratch or a small dent and maybe you didn’t feel any pain.
Fast forward a year or two or even more, and suddenly you find out you have a herniated disc in your spine or that dent irreversibly affected your engine.
As far as how long after an accident you can file a claim, there are limitations to the timeframe (based on the statute of limitations). The problem is that it can change from one state to the next. We can’t give you an accurate answer for this, but it could be as short as one year or as many as 4-6 years.
Filing a Personal Injury Claim from Home
As stated before, you will mostly be dealing with the at-fault party’s insurance company. More specifically, you will be dealing with their claim’s adjuster.
You will file the claim with the insurance company and they will eventually send a claim’s adjuster out who will evaluate the situation. They may ask you questions, request to see evidence of the accident, etc.
You need to be honest with them, but keep in mind that their goal is to reduce the final payout amount for your accident compensation claim. This can make dealing with them rather tricky.
Which is why contacting a personal injury lawyer can be extremely helpful. The good news is that – in this day and age – you can pretty much contact a lawyer from the comfort of your own home on the phone.
Many law firms even have chat features built in directly to their websites, which allows you to chat online live with a representative. This makes filing personal injury claims from home even easier because they’ll do most of the work for you.
Sure, you’ll most likely still need to deal with a claim’s adjuster, but a personal injury law firm can help you file the claim itself and guide you through the process.
The Easiest Way to File Personal Injury Claims
The process of filing personal injury claims can be complicated and/or long, but they’re not uncommon.
Luckily, filing personal injury claims from home is easy, especially when you have the ability to contact a personal injury law firm from your own living room. They can help you with the filing of the claim and the process as a whole.
Vehicle insurance can be a bit of a muddled mess, though. If you need help understanding some of its complexities, be sure to check out this quick guide to vehicle coverage!