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Personal Injury Settlement
When involved in an incident in which they suffered
some form of personal injury, many people will be keen to obtain a personal
injury settlement. The first step towards personal injury settlement is
to notify all persons and/or companies who may be responsible for the
injury that was sustained.
As soon after the incident in which the personal injury was caused, you
should notify all potentially responsible parties in writing that you
are considering making a claim for compensation against them. When notifying
a person or business entity in this manner, you need only tell them the
bare minimum about the events in question, detail only the time and the
place of the incident, and inform them that you sustained personal injury
at that time for which you are intending to seek compensation.
You should be aware that this process of notification does not mean that
you have to follow through with the claim, it is only to tell whomever
was involved that you may be seeking compensation, if you decide against
making a claim then you need not take any further action.
Notifying those involved is only the first step towards a personal injury
settlement, the next thing that you will need to do is to determine who
was at fault in the accident, as this will be the person/company who you
will be pursuing your claim against. Determining who was at fault may
require a bit of work by yourself, talk to the people who witnessed the
accident and go on your own recollection, for example in a road traffic
accident if witnesses saw one of the people involved run a stop sign then
that is the person who you should be making your claim against.
Once you know who it is that you are going to make your claim against,
you will need to determine how much to claim for, and then write a formal
demand letter to the person’s insurance company. You will then need
to wait for the insurance company’s loss adjuster to contact you
to enter negotiations on the personal injury settlement, it is advisable
to carry out all correspondence via mail as not only will this give you
time to carefully consider your response instead of being pressured over
the phone, but you will then also have a record of all communications
which may prove useful should the matter go to court.
When dealing with the insurance company loss adjuster, remember that they
will be trying to get the lowest possible settlement figure, you will
need to be clear of your facts and sure of your arguments and don’t
rush into accepting the first figure that is offered (unless of course
they offer the amount that you are claiming for your personal injury).
Some loss adjusters will try to pressure you into accepting an offer over
the phone, this is something that you should avoid – make your demand
to them in writing and ask that they make their offer to you in writing.
Be patient when seeking a personal injury settlement, once you have made
a demand wait for the offer to come back, don’t alter your demand
until you have a response as you can easily negotiate yourself out of
money without the insurer even making a move.
Hopefully you and the insurance company will come to an agreement on the
amount to be paid in compensation for your personal injury settlement,
however if you are unable to reach an agreement then you may need to pursue
the claim through the small claims court, where are judgement will be
made to settle the claim.
It is possible for individuals to handle their personal injury settlement
completely by themselves, however many find that employing a personal
injury attorney to pursue the claim on their behalf far easier, and that
they will generally be able to secure a better level of compensation,
and if the claim does end up going to the small claims court a personal
injury attorney will be able to see it through for you.
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