Everything You Need To Know About Claiming After A Car Accident
The term car accident covers a lot of different types of incidents – it includes crashing your car into another vehicle, another vehicle hitting you, being hit by a car, or something (like a falling tree) hitting your car.
Being involved in a car accident can be incredibly traumatic and one can leave you with lifelong injuries and mental scars. It is understandable that anyone who has been a victim of a car accident wants to seek compensation.
Today, we are going to look at the three main types of compensation claims that you can make if you have been involved in a car accident.
How To Claim After A Car Accident
Before you start claiming, you should talk to a lawyer who specializes in traffic accidents and the type of claims that come with them – like this Sacramento-based firm does https://tiemannlawfirm.com/car-accident-lawyers-sacramento/.
Claiming Money For Vehicle Damage
If you have been involved in a car accident then it is highly likely that your car will have been damaged in some way, or even totaled.
If you find yourself needing to buy a new car or paying for damage to your car then you will want to make a claim on your insurance at first. This will help you to cover the costs yourself in the short term.
When the accident happens, try to get the other people involved in the car accident to share insurance information with you. You can then get in touch with them and ask them to cover the cost of repairing the damage that was done.
Most people will be happy to do this if they were the ones that caused the accident. However, if they are uninsured or refuse to pay you, you may have to take them to court.
If you do that, then you will need to work with a lawyer and try to collect as much evidence about the crash as you can. You may be able to get the police to help you with this if it was a big crash.
Claiming Money For Personal Injury
The other extremely common side effect of being involved in a car accident is being injured.
This can have a huge effect on your life – you may have to spend time in hospital, as well as time in rehabilitation, you may have to take time off work, and you may have to install mobility aids in your home.
All of which can be incredibly expensive – especially if you are unable to work during this time.
When the accident first happens, you will have to claim on your health insurance to make sure you can make the first set of payments and don’t mess up your credit score. It is important to do this because some Personal Injury cases can take 6 months to 3 years if the person you are suing is fighting the case.
When you take a Personal Injury case to court you will want to bring evidence of how this accident has financially damaged you. You will want to prove that you have lost earnings, received medical bills, and are worse off than you were before the accident.
Depending on the extent of your injuries and the amount of money that you have lost, this could be a big claim. Some people will settle out of court if they do not want to fight your claim. Those that do will take it to court and might try to drag the proceedings out so you give up.
Claiming Money For Personal Liability
Personal Liability is different from a Personal Injury claim as it focuses on the other ways the accident has affected your life other than physically.
For example, if you needed to get therapy after the accident you could and should make a Personal Liability claim. If you were falsely arrested by the police because of the accident then you can make a Personal Liability claim. If you lost your job because you were unable to work after the accident then you could make a Personal Liability claim.
This type of claim focuses on any kind of effect the accident has had on your life that doesn’t have anything to do with your physical injuries.
Most people find that they are able to make both a Personal Injury and a Personal Liability case after having been involved in a car accident.
