3 Steps to Prepare a Personal Injury Claim
When you talk to friends and family members after a serious accident, your loved ones are likely to be outraged on your behalf – especially if it appears that you’ve been harmed by another person’s negligence. “That’s unfair!” they may say. “You should sue!”
Often, the advice to pursue a personal injury claim is sound. But the process can seem daunting, especially when you are already devoting all your time and energy to healing from a serious injury. The good news is that a qualified accident lawyer can handle the process of pursuing a claim while you focus on putting your life back together.
Here is an overview of the steps involved in bringing a personal injury claim and how your attorney can help:
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Investigating the accident and what caused it.
“What happened?” is one of the top questions every accident survivor has. What caused this injury? Who was responsible? How did I get here?
When you work with an experienced accident law firm, you can get answers to these questions, backed up with evidence. Your lawyer can work with experts in accident reconstruction and medical professionals who can confirm what happened and how it affected your life. Your lawyers can seek out witnesses and collect their statements, collect copies of accident and other reports, and use this information to help you answer the question “what happened?” If the answer is “you were hurt by someone else’s negligence,” your lawyer can help you establish the truth of that answer in court.
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Determining who is responsible.
In a high-tech, equipment-heavy world, determining who is responsible for a serious injury can be a complex task. Should responsibility lie with the person who was operating the vehicle that hit you, or with the auto manufacturer that failed to eliminate a hidden defect that made the vehicle itself unsafe? Did a mechanic sign off on the safety of that vehicle, when in fact the repairs were not carried out properly? Could the accident have been avoided if the intersection where it happened had had appropriate signs and signals?
Not only will your lawyer consider each of these questions, they can work with experts and witnesses to establish or rule out the possibilities. They can also determine all insurance coverage that applies to your accident and handle negotiations with insurers to get you the coverage you need and deserve.
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Calculating the losses you have suffered.
After an accident, some losses are obvious. You have medical bills from the emergency treatment you received for your injuries – treatment that may have saved your life. You likely also have bills for follow-up treatments and rehabilitation. If you work outside the home, you’re watching your wages slip away with each passing day you’re away from the job. If your work was to care for your home and family, you and they are losing the value of your services – and facing the costs of hiring others to help you make sure these needs are met. Perhaps worst of all, you’re enduring the pain and suffering, not only of the injury itself, but of watching your life take a drastic and unexpected turn.
Experienced attorneys know that the losses associated with a serious accident reach far beyond the moment of impact. That’s why they work with financial, medical and other experts to forecast future losses, as well as to total up the losses you’ve already incurred as a result of the accident. With a clear number at hand, your attorneys can fight to secure every penny you need.
At the Bob Richardson Law Firm, our experienced Texas personal injury attorneys have helped clients prepare and pursue many personal injury claims during our decades of practice. We know the process, and we work with experts in multiple fields to build the strongest case we can for each client’s needs, now and in the future.
