There are several important steps that you should take when you are filing a car accident claim.  If you are entitled to any damages, either from bodily injury or property damage, from the crash, it is vital that you get these steps right so that you can create an airtight case when you try to negotiate auto accident settlements.

What You Should Do as Soon As Possible

As soon as possible, make sure that you contact your insurance company and inform them of the crash.  Also make sure to record any details of the crash that you can.  This includes both writing down details and taking pictures as the scene of the accident if you are able to.  If you feel injured, make sure that you head to a hospital or doctors office right away to get checked out and keep the receipt.  Also make sure to keep a copy of the police report from the accident.  Also make sure you write down the the contact information of any witnesses to the accident, especially if they can prove there was no driver alert at the wheel of the other car.  Finally, whatever you do, never ever admit any liability in the accident whatever you do.  If you admit guilt, you’ll more than likely be given fault for the accident. Not only will this preclude any settlements that you can claim, it will also prevent you from being able to save money on car insurance in the future. The more you do at the scene of the accident, the easier it will be to get the compensation from the car accident you deserve.

Property Damage in a Car Accident Claim

If you were driving, its most likely that you have sustained at least some degree of property damage to your car.  To ensure that all the damages to your car are properly paid for and repaired, you need to take the following steps:

1. Keep all receipts related to towing and storage
2. Get two estimates of the cost of the damages to your car
3. If it’s possible, take your car to a certified dealer from the insurance company you are dealing with
4. Talk to the insurance company about obtaining a rental car
5. When the damages are repaired, keep the receipt and send it to your insurance company.

Dealing with Cases of Bodily Injury

For cases dealing with bodily injury claims, make sure you keep all your records relating to any hospital or doctor’s visits related to the accident.  Also make sure that you sign a medical release to the insurance company can view your medical records to review them for their purposes.  If you’ve sustained any kind of serious injury, you should strongly consider hiring a lawyer.  The lawyer will better be able to represent your case, make sure you submit paperwork correctly, and make sure that you are properly rewarded for the time that you spent injured.

Filing a car accident claim is not incredibly difficult on the surface, but you must be sure to get it right.  Any oversights or mistakes that you make, especially in larger cases, can be pounced on by the insurance company to undermine your case.  Make sure that you get your claim right!

Finding out the right car accident compensation varies from case to case.  In some cases that only involve property damage or minor medical damages, the amount you will accept is fairly straightforward.  But in larger cases, where there may be serious injury involved and a significant amount of pain and suffering damages can be sought, the amount of damages you can seek is not as clear.

Determining Car Accident Compensation in Simple Cases

If you are involved in a minor car crash, determining the compensation that you are entitled to is fairly straightforward.  Your biggest worry is to make sure that you keep all your receipts and proof of damages.  Since these cases are simpler, there will also be very little, if any, negotiations with the Auto Insurance Agency during a settlement.

If you have sustained an injury, such as whiplash, make sure that you seek medical care right away and complete all treatments that are prescribed for you.  Keep track of all of your medical bills during this time, including visits to chiropractors, doctors, and the emergency room.  The damage sustained to your car can be fixed at a repair shop of your choice.  This seems like it’s the insurance companies being generous, but it is more because if the repairs are subpar and you end up having to repair your car again later, the insurance company can say you chose the mechanic so they are not liable for any further damages.  For this reason, if the insurance company that you are dealing with has certified dealers that guarantee their repairs you should take your car there to make sure it gets repaired right.  Also keep track of any transportation costs you incurred as a direct result of the crash, including rental cars or having to use a car finder service to get a new car.

Determining Compensation in Serious Accidents

If you’ve had a serious car accident that involves either complex property damage or significant bodily injury, it would be advisable to hire an attorney.  In these auto accident claims, there is also significant pain and suffering damages involved.  Pain and suffering can be a hard number to arrive at because it depends on a variety of factors such as age, severity of injuries, and your future prognosis.  It can be hard to get the full amount that you deserve in cases like this without the use of a lawyer.

In addition to being able to more accurately gauge the amount that you are owed, lawyers also have more experience in negotiating auto accident settlements.  This experience is much needed in complex cases where pain and suffering damages can be very flexible and it takes a lawyer who knows how different factors will affect what a jury, and thus the insurance company is likely to award you.

How difficult it is to find the right car accident compensation for you is determined by how complex and severe your case is.  If you have a simple case just involving property damage, you should be able to talk to insurance companies on your own.  But if you case involves significant bodily injury or pain and suffering damage, you should consider hiring a lawyer to protect your rights.

Filing a car accident injury claim with an insurance company can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. How difficult the whole process will be is determined by how much of the paperwork documenting the cause and fault of the accident as well as the damages caused to your body and property you have in your possession. Most of us will experience an accident sometime in our lives, so if you make sure to keep these tips in your mind, it will make reaching any auto accident settlement with an insurance company much easier.

At The Scene of the Accident

When you are at the scene of the accident and after you have made sure that everyone involved is safe and not seriously injured, make sure to take a few pictures of the accident. They don’t have to be perfect and the camera on your phone will most likely to more than enough. This will help document the damages to your property and also if your car is in particularly bad shape, can be used at a trial as evidence if the need should arise.  Every piece of evidence you collect will many any insurance settlement you try to reach later much easier.   Call both the police and the insurance company.

When the police arrive make sure to get a copy of the accident report and keep it in a safe place. It should show who is at fault for the accident. If you feel that you may be injured in any way, shape, or form, make sure that you inform the officers and immediately get treatment for it. You may be able to ride in an ambulance or you may need to drive yourself to a doctor’s office or emergency room.

After the Accident

If you did sustain bodily injuries, it is just as important to keep records of all the medical treatments that you receive afterward as it was at the scene of the accident. Keep track of both the time you spent in the doctor’s office and the time you spent traveling to and from the office. If you missed work as a result of your injury, also make sure to keep track of your lost pay stubs as well.

If your car needs repaired, the easiest option is to take it to a dealer certified by the insurance company, if they have them. The parts that they repair will be certified. If this isn’t an option, take the car to your mechanic, you should be able to choose, and then have the car inspected again by a different mechanic after the repairs are made. This will ensure that none of the parts are repaired improperly and if they fall apart a few days after the accident, you won’t be liable for the repair costs.

Recap: The Six Tips to Filing a Car Accident Injury Claim

1. Take pictures of the scene of the accident
2. Make sure the police and your insurance company are informed
3. Immediately seek treatment
4. Keep records of all documentation dealing with the crash
5. Take your car to a certified repair shop
6. Have your car double checked at another shop once it is repaired

If you are planning on trying to come to a settlement with an insurance company on your own, you need to be aware that every auto accident insurance settlement is essentially a negotiation. You and the insurance adjuster working on your case are essentially deciding on the price of your lawsuit. A successful conclusion to negotiations is favorable to both parties. You stay out of court and get you money and peace of mind sooner and the insurance company avoids paying legal costs to defend itself in court. Unfortunately, however, insurance adjusters haggle auto accident settlement cases for a living, where you most likely have another occupation. Luckily there are several things that you can do to tilt the bargaining scenario more in your favor.

Be Prepared

First, make sure that you are prepared before you ever meet with the insurance adjuster. Have pictures of the accident, copies of your medical bills, pay stubs proving lost pay, the names and numbers of doctors and witnesses and anything else you think might be relevant. If you are in doubt, bring it. The more thorough you are with your documentation, the better.   This will make filing your car accident claim much easier.  Next, total the amount of your medical bills, property damage, and the pain and suffering from any injury claims resulting from the accident you would like to collect (if any) and come up with a range of numbers that you will be willing to accept from the insurance company for your accident.

Negotiating Your Auto Accident Insurance Settlement

When you are actually in the room with the insurance adjuster for accident insurance negotiations, your goal is to get the adjuster to offer you more money to than he wants to. You do this in theory by making the adjuster think he’s still winning when he offers you the amount of money that you want. There are many different methods that you can use to achieve this that are used in all kinds of negotiations, from those between management and labor in companies to those used between countries. If you have experience in these kinds of deals, you will have a leg up in negotiations. If not, here are a few tactics that you can use.

The first method that you can use to aid you in bargaining is using the time tested diplomatic tool of brinksmanship. In this, you threaten to go to trial and clean out the insurance company. If the adjuster believes that this is an option, then he may be prepared to offer you more in a settlement. But, for this to work you must convince the adjuster that the threat of a lawsuit is real. Be creative and think of ways you can do this – perhaps by putting a lawyer on retainer or by acting a little bit crazy and not listening to reason about the case possibly costing more money than you would make – think Khrushchev pounding his shoe at the United Nations.

Another negotiation tactic that you can use is tying your hands so that it is impossible for you to accept any deal below a certain dollar amount. This can be done with the use of a lawyer, who you send to the negotiation with strict instructions not to accept any dollar amount below your minimum. A lawyer is not necessary however, you can financially tie your hands, saying that any amount of money below a certain level will drive you broke so you will not accept it as a settlement. Be careful when using this method though, if the insurance adjuster tries to tie his hands as well, you may very well end up at an impasse you will be unable to break.

These are just a few of the tactics that you can use to help you out to get the auto accident insurance settlement you deserve. While these will help, nothing will make up for proper preparation. With proper preparation you will have everything documented, insuring an airtight case that the insurance adjuster won’t be able to poke holes into. This will make sure that you get the most amount of money in a settlement more than anything else.

If you have been injured in an auto accident, you are entitled to seek damages from the other party as long as you are not one hundred percent at fault. This means, if it was determined that you were held seventy-five percent of the blame for the accident, you can still seek an auto accident injury settlement for up to twenty-five percent of your medical bills. However, you must be careful when trying to fill out your car accident claim because you may open yourself up to further lawsuits if you press your case too hard.

What To Do After the Accident

If you’ve been injured in an auto accident there are several things that you can do from the time of the accident onward that will insure you get the proper settlement amount.  First, get a ticket from the police officer showing who was at fault for the accident.  Immediately after this, seek medical attention if you feel like you’ve been injured. Insurance companies consider you injured if you seek treatment.   So make sure to do this immediately to remove any doubt that the injury actually happened after the accident.  Keep a copy of every visit to make to the doctor’s office for your records.  In addition to medical bills, also keep track of lost wages, check stubs, and any property damage that was incurred.  Finally, make sure to immediately write down the details of the accident so you can keep your story straight later.

When the Car insurance company of the driver that hit you contacts you, make sure to tell them that you are getting treatment. Don’t give them a recorded statement at this time either, it is not mandatory.  Make sure that as you are receiving treatment, you continue to keep track of all your medical records and amounts of lost pay.

Bargaining Your Auto Accident Injury Settlement

When you finally go to settle with the insurance company, you are able to collect damages for the percentage of the accident that was not your fault. So if the accident was one hundred percent the other drivers fault, you can collect damages for all your medical bills. There are no maximum or minimum car crash settlement amounts.

Determining the value of your medical records in a settlement may be very straightforward, but if you are entitled to pain and suffering compensation it can be harder to come up with dollar amount that accurate reflects what the accident cost you.  Pain and suffering losses are determined by both financial loss and mental anguish caused by the accident. Age, extent of liability, your medical prognosis, and how bad your injuries are all play into what your pain and suffering damages will be.  In smaller cases, you may be able to come up with this dollar amount on your own.  However, with larger cases you should invest the help of a lawyer who has experience determining what kind of damages you are able to collect.

Getting the right amount of money for your automobile accident injury settlement can be very tricky. If you have a large case involving severe injuries, it is highly advisable to enlist the help of a lawyer to help with your accident claim. If the case is smaller, or you share some of the blame, make sure you think twice about actually submitting the case. You could be opening yourself up to future lawsuits for your percentage of the damages and the damages you do receive may not be worth the court costs.