Best Tips to Maximize Your Personal Injury Settlement – A Brief Guide
Accidents can happen anywhere and anytime. If you get into an accident and sustain injuries, you might be wondering about the tons of medical bills that you must be receiving. It doesn’t matter whether you got hit by a car as a pedestrian, whether you were riding your bike and got hit by a car, or whether you got hit by a truck while you were driving your passenger car – getting medical help must always be your number one priority.
With that out of the way, read on to learn about the best tips that can help with increasing your settlement.
The Insurance Adjuster is Not Your Friend
The first thing you must understand, and this is something that you can never compromise on, is the simple fact that the insurance adjuster is not your friend. It means that they might not really fight for your welfare or best interest. In fact, they are going to go to all the possible lengths in order to ensure that they give you the least possible payment for your injuries.
However, it is in your best interest to be aware of the insurance adjuster’s tricks and recover as much as you can. Once you understand this basic thing, you can shift your mindset and start working together with your lawyer to increase your personal injury settlement.
Get A Lawyer Onboard ASAP
Many people who get injured in a car accident or a pedestrian accident believe that since it is quite evident that the accident wasn’t their fault, it means that they don’t need a lawyer. The truth is that you do need a lawyer, as the lawyer understands the complexities of the state’s laws and has vast experience in court proceedings.
So, if you hire an attorney, such as the Detroit Personal Injury Lawyers, if you live in Detroit, then you have an almost triple the chance of maximizing your settlement as compared to if you try to deal with the insurance company on your own.
Don’t Delay Filing the Insurance Claim
If you want to make the most of your personal injury settlement, then you shouldn’t delay calling an attorney, but you should also not delay filing an insurance claim. As a matter of fact, for the best outcome, you must file an insurance claim immediately with both insurance companies:
- The insurance company of the at-fault driver
- Your own insurance company
If you have never filed an insurance company claim before, contact a reputable and experienced lawyer and ask them to help you with what is needed.
In addition, the need to file a claim against your insurance company is to establish a higher settlement value for you.
Let The Lawyer Communicate With The Insurance Firms
For both insurance companies, it would be best if you let your personal injury attorney deal with the insurance adjusters on both sides. Speaking of insurance adjusters, the at-fault driver’s insurance adjusters will probably reach out to you right after the accident and offer you a minor initial amount, such as five hundred or one thousand dollars for your medical bills or treatment.
There is no amount of stressing that can be enough on this: Never accept or settle for any first offer that comes to you.
Be Mindful of Dirty Tricks
You can expect the insurance adjusters to play all sorts of dirty tricks on you. Why, you might ask? As mentioned earlier, the insurance adjusters don’t care about you, but they will do whatever they can to prove that your injuries are minor or that your injuries were from before and that the accident didn’t cause the injuries.
They might even tell you that your case or accident is only worth as much as the amount that they are offering you. So, it is in your best interest to let your attorney handle all correspondence with the insurance adjusters.
Prioritize Your Wellbeing
If you have gotten into a car accident, and you are not the at-fault driver, then naturally, you might be more worried about getting your car fixed. The reason why most people get overly fixated on property damage is because they need their car for many reasons, such as getting to work, and if they cannot get to work, it can cause serious financial loss for them.
However, right after the accident, you must focus on your wellbeing first. You might be more seriously injured than you think, as many injuries come to the surface after some time, which is why it is incredibly important to seek medical attention and, meanwhile, ask a friend or a loved one to take care of the car and call a lawyer right away.
Save Your Medical Bills and Records
Make sure to seek medical help and keep seeing the doctor until you are discharged from the hospital and until you have fully healed. While you are at it, you must also keep track of your bills as well as the pain that you experienced due to your injuries.
It’s recommend to write down what you feel, such as loss of enjoyment of life due to being bedridden. Depending on the intensity of your injuries, you might as well have a life-changing injury, such as amputation or head injury.
Your lawyer will help you reach the highest personal injury settlement, including compensation for your emotional and mental trauma. However, you must focus on getting medical treatment and following your doctor’s orders until you have fully recovered.
Don’t Lose Hope
Getting into an accident can be a life-changing experience, and most personal injury cases take a lot of time, such as several years, especially when you have a high-value case. So, do not lose hope, but work closely with your lawyer.
Stay patient and trust your experienced attorney, as they will do their best to help you file a successful lawsuit. Rest assured, you don’t have to worry about the lawyer’s fee, as the best attorneys will get paid through your settlement and won’t ask you to pay anything until the case settles.