If you have been injured and you believe that it was not your fault, then you could be eligible for financial compensation. In order to receive this, you must launch a personal injury claim, which is a complex legal process. Thankfully, the lawyer that you hire will handle all of this for you, allowing you to focus on your recovery. With that said, there are still some things that you need to do prior to your lawyer’s involvement, which we will discuss in this article.
Here are the steps you need to take in order to win your personal injury case:
Contact the Police
The first thing that you need to do is to contact the police, whether it was accidental or not. This is especially true if you have been involved in a car accident and you suspect that the person who caused the accident is intoxicated or under the influence of some kind of substance or intoxicant. The police will be able to come and investigate the incident, determining whether or not it was truly caused by the other person, or if it was your own fault. If they believe that the other person was at fault and was behaving criminally, they will arrest them.
Phone an Ambulance
After contacting the police, if your injury is severe, you should phone an ambulance. An ambulance will be dispatched immediately so that they can treat you for any injuries. If you do not think that your injuries warrant a trip to the ER, then you should not call an ambulance, and instead, should go to your physician the next day. Some injuries, like whiplash, do not appear immediately. If you do not get it treated, it can have serious complications. In addition to this, phoning an ambulance or visiting a doctor will also make it easier for you to acquire a medical certificate, which we will address next.
Acquire Medical Certificate
A medical certificate is a written note from your physician, confirming that you have indeed suffered from the injuries that you claim to have. A medical certificate is a very important piece of evidence that will add a lot of weight to your claim. When you have a medical certificate, there’s very little an insurance adjuster can do to try and disprove your injuries or argue that you are exaggerated. A medical certificate is often required by many attorneys before they will take you on as a client, although that is not always the case, some may represent you without a certificate.
Contact a Lawyer
You need to contact a lawyer. There is absolutely no way that you can win your claim without one because they have the experience and connections needed to make your case a success. According to Cefali & Cefali personal injury attorneys, legal aid can help you to receive compensation from an insurance company for the person that injured you. Insurance companies can be very difficult to deal with, especially if you don’t have any prior experience dealing with them. Insurance adjusters will do absolutely everything that they can to reduce the amount of compensation that you receive.
Hand Over Evidence
Once you have contacted a lawyer, you can go ahead and hand over all of your evidence to them. They will usually ask you to send all of your evidence over in an email prior to taking you on as a client. In addition to providing medical evidence, you should also send them any photos or videos that were taken at the scene of the accident. You should always try to take some kind of photographic or video evidence of your accident from the scene, even if you are seriously injured. This adds a lot of weight to your case and makes it easier for you to get compensation.
Contact Your Employer
When the wheels are in motion, it’s usually advisable to contact your employer and take some time off of work. This is so that you can relax. If you are going into work when you are seriously injured or recovering, you will just wear yourself out and make it difficult for yourself to recover. This isn’t something that you will want. You need to be able to recover quickly, which is impractical if you are going to work. Once you have taken time off of work, you can sit back and wait. Your lawyer will contact you if they need you. When they win your compensation, they will transfer it directly to your account.
Personal injury claims can be very hard to manage, especially if you have no previous experience in them. The best piece of advice that we can give you is to contact a lawyer. A lawyer will be able to handle your case expertly, ensuring that you receive compensation.