Determining the Value of Your Auto Accident Injury Settlements
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.
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