Personal injury claim or personal injury lawsuit is the two ways to claim your reparations for your losses. There are some dissimilarities between these two ways which will help you decide which one is suitable for you. There is another option for you other than these two, which is arbitration. Think carefully before choosing any way out of these three.
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Personal Injury Claim vs. Lawsuit
There is a fundamental difference between a personal injury claim and a personal injury lawsuit. But both are different ways of claiming your reparations for your loss in any case.
Personal injury legal claim deals with the opposition party’s insurance company most—insurance companies like homeowner insurance companies, car insurance companies, auto insurance companies, etc. A personal injury claim is basically a negotiation-based process where you can directly negotiate with the convict’s insurance company’s adjuster.
Through negotiation, you both reach a satisfactory settlement of compensation. You might have your own lawyer to make out the whole process on behalf you. Small issues you can handle yourself like fall and slip accidents. But in case of critical conditions such as medical issues, vehicle compensation, etc. You might need a professional lawyer.
On the contrary, you need to file a personal injury lawsuit whenever you and the insurance adjuster fail to reach a satisfactory settlement. The adjuster might disagree with you, and your negotiation does not work successfully.
In that case, a personal injury claim is not suitable; instead, a personal injury lawsuit is more applicable to get your desired reparations. In simple words, where a personal injury claim fails, a personal injury lawsuit begins. Most possible and general damages that are suitable to be demanded as personal injury claim are—
- Cost of dental and medical treatment
- Compensation for the loss of products and vehicles
- Expenses of major surgery or physical therapy or rehabilitation
- Reparation for work payments
- Other issues such as bandages, medicines, crutches, etc
- Sufferings, troubles, and pains
Personal Injury Claim
Once you are suffering from physical injuries or property losses, you can file your personal injury claim against the guilty party. For example, you can claim compensation for your losses from the faulty driver in case of a car accident.
If the driver possesses an insurance policy in his car, he will hand over the matter to them. The insurance company appoints the insurance adjuster to handle the issue through a negotiation process with you. In that negotiation, the adjuster reviews your demands and proposes his consent on how much they can pay to you. You might need to compromise a bit, and the adjuster also might sacrifice from his side.
Read Also: How Much Is My Personal Injury Claim Worth?
One important thing to be remembered is that you must claim your compensation to the insurance company as early as possible after the accident happened. You should go ahead with the claiming process once you have recovered from your physical injuries.
The insurance company will never trust your words only. They attempt to interrogate whether your demands are substantial or not. They need reliable proof about the accident, the convict, the victim, and the demands for compensation.
They might search for some witnesses of the accident and overview your medical costs if true or false. In terms of your communication with the insurance adjuster, you have to convince them with proper evidence. It would help if you made them trust that the accident happened due to their party’s fault. The driver was careless.
You should provide a substantial medical report of your bodily injuries. If your vehicles or other properties get damaged, you can show them as proof. You can show the leaving certificate from your work that you missed for your injuries.
It will show your economic losses due to the accident. You will elaborate on the sufferings and pains you went through. You can also mention the out of pocket costs for a bandage, crutches, medicines, etc.
Depending upon all your proofs and demands, the insurance company will fix an amount for giving you as your compensation. Then the adjuster will invite you for a meeting or negotiation about the amount. Both of your compromises will lead you to reach a satisfactory settlement.
Personal Injury Lawsuit
A personal injury lawsuit is completely a legal process that you can adopt when you and the insurance adjuster fail to reach any settlement. You should know how to file a lawsuit for your personal injury just after the accident has happened. But in case of minor losses or accidents such as falls and slips, you can avoid this lawsuit issue.
You have to file your lawsuit exactly against the faulty person, not against his insurance company at all. Lawsuits are comparatively more time-consuming, stressful as well as expensive. You have to pay for your case, your lawyer, and other issues. There are litigation stresses and many other mental pressures in a personal injury lawsuit.
For that reason, it is better to try to solve issues through personal injury claims, at least in case of minor accidents. To pursue a personal injury lawsuit, you might have to pay for filing your case to the court—a lawyer for handling and fighting for you, and so on.
You need to take leaves from your works, that would be an extra loss for you. If you are not satisfied with the insurance offerings, think twice before you decide to file a lawsuit. It might make you face extra expenses and losses.
Arbitration
Arbitration is a third party based process. When you are not convinced with the amount the insurance offers to you and do not want to go for a lawsuit, you can choose this. In arbitration, both you and your opposition party will meet with a third party. He will listen to both of you and decide an intermediary amount, which you will agree with. It’s like going to a court without going physically.
Conclusion
Now you can easily decide whether you should file a personal injury claim or lawsuit. You can even choose the arbitration process. No matter what step you choose, personal injury claim or lawsuit or arbitration, there are some limitations in all the process like time limits. You have to follow those strictly.
