Concluding the event requires valuing and negotiating your dispute with the others involved in your auto accident. Generally, this involves working with the at fault driver’s insurance company.
1. Valuing Your Claims
Claim valuation has become a bit of a science over the years and quality personal injury lawyers are well-versed in the details. Generally, claim valuation will be determined by looking at a number of areas.
Quantifiable Monetary Damages. This includes medical bills, lost income resulting from the accident, lost vacation time or sick leave, lost insurance benefits, and other such injuries.
Impact on Your Every Day Life. How your everyday life has been negatively altered by the injuries you sustained as a result of the accident. For example, if you are an avid runner who regularly ran but no longer can as a result of the accident, then this is one way that your daily life has been negatively affected.
Short Term or Chronic Injuries. Whether the injuries are treatable and short term, or are chronic and going to affect you for the rest of your life. This includes brain injuries, lost limbs, disfiguring scars, and other such injuries.
Apportionment of Liability. You should consider the facts of the incident and whether the law in your locality will ascribe liability to the other drivers completely or whether the laws will make you partially responsible for the accident.
Evidentiary Claim. You should consider the amount and quality of evidence that you have to support your version of how the accident occurred. For instance, if you have no witnesses and there is no visible physical damage to any property, then it will be harder to prove who was at fault.
Pain & Suffering. You should consider how much pain you have suffered as a result of the accident.
All of these factors together can help you (and your lawyer if you hire one) reach a range for which it would be reasonable to settle your case. Once you have such a range, you can begin to discuss settlement with the other parties to see if they are willing to settle the case for a price within your range.
2. Bring a Lawsuit
Sometimes settlement negotiations do not result in any settlement because the other side will not take your claim of injury seriously or they gamble that you and your lawyer will not proceed to trial for your claim. In such cases, your only option for seeking relief for your injuries is to file a lawsuit. Even if settlement negotiations are progressing in a promising matter, it still makes sense to file a lawsuit to put pressure on the other side in certain circumstances. Cases with lawyers generally result in larger settlements.
3. What You Can Do If Your Case Is One That You Can Handle Yourself
If your case does not need a lawyer due to the minimal nature of the damage, then there are many helpful considerations that you can keep in mind when negotiating with the other drivers or their insurance companies. You should still take the steps advised in Part 1 of this series. These preparatory steps will make you substantially better suited to negotiate or proceed with any claim that you might have. After you have completed the steps above, you should track down the statute of limitation. It is very important to do your research and identify the correct statute of limitation before contacting the other party or their insurance company to discuss settlement. You need to know how long you can discuss settlement without losing your right to bring a court action if necessary.
You can write out a demand letter to the other party or their insurance company explaining your injuries, claim, and the amount of money they should pay you for the injuries arising out of the accident. If you allow an insurance company to make the first offer, they will most likely make an offer that is laughably low.
Two things to consider when determining the amount that you request for the damage to your car is the diminished value of the care and the value of aftermarket parts versus original parts (“OEM” parts). When a car is in an accident, it loses value even if it is fixed back to near perfect condition. This means you will be able to sell it for less money than you would have been able to sell it for the day before an accident. You are entitled to recover the lost money and you should always ask for such lost money when you make your demand. Additionally, you should seek compensation not just for replacement parts for your car but OEM parts.
When an insurance company or the other party receives your demand letter, one of three things is likely to happen: they will contact you to try to negotiate a settlement; offer a low ball settlement or simply ignore you. If either of the last two scenarios occurs, your only chance for a just recovery will be to file your own lawsuit. If the first option occurs, then there are multiple tactics that the insurance companies and other parties employ during negotiations of which you should be aware. First, insurance companies can try to stall and overwhelm you by asking for a burdensome amount of unnecessary documents and information. This tactic is designed to make you feel overwhelmed and make you feel as if your case is weaker than it is. Insurance companies love delay because sometimes they can get the other party to give up or miss their statute of limitation to file a case and lose all leverage. Second, insurance companies will try to pay you a large fraction of your medical and car repair costs with a hope that you will not fight over the lost fraction. Third, the insurance companies or other drivers might act like your best friend in order to guilt you into settling for a low amount or to try to gain your trust so that you accept a bad settlement offer from them. However, if you’ve properly valued your claim, stick to your range, assemble and present the proper information (in your demand letter), and you will have a better chance of getting a just settlement.
Cconclusion
Car accidents can be traumatic and confusing. If you follow this guide, then you will be able to know what to do to preserve your rights and have the best chance to get fully compensated for all injuries that arise out of the accident.
Note. Always contact a lawyer for complete information about your situation. State law, the at fault driver’s insurance policy, your insurance policy and many other variables may all play a role in determining the value and best way to pursue your claim.
See Part 1 of this series, What To Do After An Accident--At The Scene And When You Get Home.
