If you’ve just been injured in an accident, fall, or slip, it can be a stressful and confusing time. Firstly, it’s important to look after your health, but eventually you may want to think about pursuing a personal injury claim.
There are almost as many different personal injury cases as there are different ways that you can get injured. Fro car accidents to falls, to injuries caused by defective products, or even those that are caused by mistakes by a doctor, this type of law covers a huge range of accidents and incidents, which means no two cases will be exactly the same.
If you’ve suffered an injury, and you’re sure that some else could legally be at fault, you may want to check if that person has insurance that would cover any injury claim you may make. If you’ve been in a car accident, does the other party have insurance? And if you get hurt in a slip or fall, does the property owner have coverage for liability?
This is important information to know, because it may determine whether you’ll actually be able to get any of the damages if a jury rules in your favour during a personal injury trial. While it’s one thing to have a judgement in your favour, it’s quite another to actually collect on that judgement if the defendant has no insurance and few assets. If your injuries weren’t very serious and you have insurance, you may want to consider whether you want to file a lawsuit against someone who is uninsured.
Unless it’s a very simple case and your injuries aren’t significant, your best bet is to speak with a personal injury attorney such as Michael Jefferies Injury Lawyers. Most personal injury lawyers will give you a free consultation and discuss your legal options and the merits of your case.
Most of the time when you hire a personal injury lawyer, the attorney is working based on “contingency”. This means that you won’t pay anything unless you receive a court judgement or settlement in your favour. Then the attorney will take a percentage of the settlement as their fee.
Most personal injury cases tend to reach a settlement before they go to trail, and many are resolved before the filing of a lawsuit. There are a few ways that you can be compensated for receiving an injury without the need to go to court or file a lawsuit. If the other party has insurance you can choose to file a “third party claim” against their insurance carrier. You need to get a few different pieces of information, including their policy number, their information, the date of the accident, your information, and a notice that you were injured and are planning to make a claim. You don’t yet need to get into specifics about what actually occurred- this will come later.
As you can see, there are many different ways that you can deal with a personal injury claim.
