How to Handle Your Own Personal Injury Claim

Not many people know that, after an accident, it is often possible to get around some of these roadblocks to fair compensation. Once you know the basic process involved in accident claims, with a bit of organization and some patience, your can save yourself the cost of a lawyer and handle your own injury insurance claim.

Actually it is even possible that you will be able to get more compensation for your injury by handling it yourself instead of hiring a lawyer and paying attorney fees.

There are many reasons why this works. Here are a few of them.

1. It is cheaper for insurance company to settle your claim directly

For insurance company, it is often cheaper to settle a claim than go through a trial. An insurance company's willingness to settle your claim quickly is in their best interest to save money in the long run. It is simply cheaper to pay you than to prolong the fight.

2. The claims process is pretty simple

In contrary to what insurance companies and lawyers would like you to believe, settling an injury claim is usually quite simpel.

Most personal injury claims involve no more than a few short letters and phone calls with an insurance adjuster who has no legal training. It is even not necessary to know the technical language or complex legal rules. Your right to be compensated usually depends on nothing more than commonsense ideas of who was careful and wo was careless.

3. The compensation system is structured

The amount of fair compensation is easy to figure out basing on a number of simple factors: type of accident, injuries, medical cost, etc. Then you can easily find out how many any claim is "worth".

The amount an insurance company is willing to pay falls into a narrow range, no matter a personal injury attorney handles your claim or you handle it by yourself.

An insurance adjuster who learns that you are organized and that you understand the claims process will usually settle the claim with you right away.

4. Save money on legal fees

A personal injury lawyer will charge you up to 40% of your recovery. Yet, except in serious or complicated cases, a lawyer can usually gain for you, if anything, only an extra 5% to 20% above what you can get for yourself once your understand the process.

However, keep in mind that you are the only non-lawyer who is permitted to handle your case. Even though your brother thinks that he can represent you as well as any real lawyer, it is not allowed by the law.

This is called "the unauthorized practice of law". Your brother can give you all the off the record helpful hints he wants, but if you do not retain a licensed attorney, you must sign all of the official court documents yourself and you must appear in court yourself.

In addition, if you are handling the claim yourself, you are responsible for gathering all the information you will need to reach a settlement.

In autoaccident cases, always obtain the police report. Here you have an advantage over people who are represented by attorneys. The police often will more readily and more rapidly turn over their information to you, the accident victim, than they will to a lawyer.

The police report is crucial because it contains the names, addresses, and phone numbers of witnesses, insurance information for the person who injured you, license numbers, a diagram of the accident, and many other important items.

The police may even have photographs of the accident scene and the cars. Get copies of any photographs. Be sure to take your own if the damage to the cars was more than minimal.

Photographs of the accident scene should always be taken if there is any doubt as to who caused the accident.

Most personal injury cases are based on a claim that someone has been negligent (careless), and a few are based on claims of intentional injury. The legal theories involved are the same as any other.

To prevail, you must show that your injury was caused by someone's negligent or intentional behavior (unless your injury was caused by a defective product, in which case a different legal doctrine applies).

Check your state's rules. In some states you cannot file a personal injury case in small claims court, even if the amount of damages is less than the maximum.