What to Claim for a Personal Injury
It would be really convenient if after becoming the victim of a personal injury you would just ask for a compensational amount of money, get the money and then manage to go at peace with your trouble. Because this is not the way the world turns, the whole procedure of asking for your rights in case you get hurt out of somebody else’s fault is far more complicated.
Figuring out what to claim in case someone hurts you and reaching a point where you and the insurer adjuster set an appropriate deal are pretty rough steps to make as the interests of the parties involved are evidently completely different. Regardless, in many situations the negligence cases are quite straightforward and there aren’t any blurry things to be cleared up. Therefore, a lot of people are able to deal with accident settlements and learn what to claim on their own, without hiring a lawyer.
Why would you want to represent yourself?
First of all, the process might not be that complicated and hiring a lawyer would involve paying a pretty significant fee. Try and thoroughly evaluate the situation, think about what to claim, and then decide whether it is worth being represented by an attorney or not.
Let’s say you get a $3000 settlement but you give a good thought and figure out this amount of money is not enough. You hire a lawyer that manages to obtain $4000 for you, but he eventually takes out his final 33% fee and all you get is less than $2800 without even considering his other costs that have to be paid up front. If you get to think about it, a lawyer should only be hired in cases of personal injury when the claimant really can’t defend himself or when the variables of the case are really tangled.
Situations in which only an attorney would know what to claim
Only a lawyer would know how to handle a case of severe negligence where the victim has been permanently or long term disabled as for instance when a person is left permanently left in a wheelchair, is blinded or deafened. It’s extremely hard to decide what to claim for this type of personal injuries as it’s almost impossible to set a monetary value on somebody’s ability to walk, for example. If the claimant is financially challenged, a lawyer should be consulted at least right before the compensation claim process starts so he can make sure everything was covered and the numbers are right.
complicated case is the one of malpractice. You definitely need to hire an attorney when you believe you were wronged by a member of a medical staff, as malpractice cases can be really intricate and the proofs are almost always relative. As you have to know all kinds of specialized information in order to handle a case of malpractice, there are actually lawyers that handle mainly this kind of things. They are the best way to go as they know what they’re doing, they can easily realize what to claim and they are used to all the medical terms and their legal background.
Toxic exposure cases also raise problems for the claimants as the big companies that are usually involved in them have very strong court representation. Therefore, if you were exposed to chemical substances that caused you harm, you would need an attorney to guide and help you gather all the evidence you need in order to get a satisfying settlement. Drug lawsuits are basically in the same range so an attorney will again know here too what to claim and how to set everything right.
When can you take care of it yourself?
Usually a straightforward case can be handled by the claimant himself. There are several types of personal injuries and many times everything can be settled with only the help of a nicely written letter of demand. There are other times though when a letter is not enough, but you would have to put a lot of evidence together and continuously communicate with the insurance company. Obviously, the cases that you can handle on your own are actually the most common ones that don’t require too much legal knowledge like for instance minor to medium severity car accidents, bike accidents-the ones that don’t overlap with the cases mentioned above as requiring a lawyer’s help, slip and fall accidents, home accidents including faulty products or services, or dog bites.