Money for medical bills and lost wages
If you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, it might be possible to receive compensation for your medical bills, lost wages and perhaps even for your pain and suffering through either an insurance settlement or the courts.
Types of accidents that could be someone else’s fault include car accidents… slip-and-fall accidents… dog bites… medical malpractice… and accidents caused by defective products.
LIKELIHOOD OF WINNING
There are only a few situations in which it can be relatively easy to receive compensation for injuries…
If you are injured on the property of someone who has homeowner’s insurance. This insurance likely contains a “no-fault” medical component that will pay your medical bills up to the policy limits even if the accident was your fault. Ask the home owner to contact his/her insurer. (His home-owner’s policy rates may increase because of this.)Similarly, your own auto insurance may have “no-fault” protection that covers medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault in an auto accident.
If your insurance claim is less than $5,000. Insurance companies may not aggressively fight injury claims for less than this amount.Otherwise, do not expect it to be easy to recover your losses. Insurance companies have become extremely aggressive in fighting injury claims in recent years, and personal-injury cases are more difficult to win in court. You will have to prove that your injuries and your financial losses are as significant as you claim and that the person, business or government entity you blame for your injuries truly is legally responsible.
Also, there might be no point in pursuing a case if the individual responsible for your accident has no insurance and few assets. Still, a lawyer might be able to track down hidden assets or find other defendants with deeper pockets who share legal responsibility.
Example: The home owner whose uneven sidewalk you tripped over has no insurance. Perhaps the local municipality is legally responsible for ensuring that local residents maintain their sidewalks. If your lawyer can show that the municipality failed to do so, the municipality could be liable.
IMPORTANT STEPS
If you are injured in an accident, do the following…
Be very careful about what you say at the accident scene. Do not say anything that implies that you were wholly, or even partially, responsible or that you could have done something to avoid the accident.If you believe that you are injured, say this and request medical help. If you do not feel hurt, do not say that you feel fine. Say only that you’re not certain yet whether you are hurt. It is very common to not notice injuries or register pain until many hours after an accident. Some injuries are not apparent until days later.
Ask any witnesses what they saw. If their version of events confirms that someone other than you was at fault, take their names and phone numbers. Also, write down any statements, such as apologies or admissions of mistakes, made by the person at fault for your accident. If others hear these statements, ask them to sign and date a note detailing what they heard.If you’re too injured to take names and statements, ask someone else on the scene to do so or give the witnesses your phone number and ask them to contact you later. If you have a cell phone, ask witnesses to call your voice mail and leave their phone numbers. Make sure the police get the names and numbers of any helpful witnesses.Take photos of the accident scene as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the greater the odds that the conditions will change. Example: The ice you slipped on could melt or be cleared.Have someone take photos of your injuries right after the accident — and again several days later if bruises become more visible.Schedule an appointment with your doctor if your injuries were not severe enough to require an immediate visit to the emergency room. This creates an official medical record.Send a brief letter laying out the basic facts of the accident to the responsible party’s insurance company. Send copies of your medical bills and reports, as well as the police report and witness statements. State what you would like to be compensated for (medical bills, lost wages, etc.).Go to court. If the responsible party’s insurance company does not offer a settlement that you consider acceptable, you will have to go to small-claims court (if the amount is within the limits that your state specifies) or hire an attorney who specializes in personal-injury law. Try to find a lawyer with at least a decade of experience who is respected by insurance companies and other local attorneys, not one known simply for his television ads. A local attorney with a different specialty might be able to provide a referral.
