6 Important Steps To Remember To Make A Claim After an Accident
Amidst the harrowing events that surround an accident, the legal aftermath of things is usually the last thing on anyone’s mind. However, taking the necessary legal steps is of the utmost importance if you want to get fairly compensated for your injuries, financial losses, and emotional distress. If you’re worried about being in this situation, then you might want to be prepared just in case.
Table of Contents
Here are 6 important steps that you need to take to claim compensation after an accident
1. Gather Information
Accidents are shocking, so it’s okay if you feel a bit distraught at first. Give yourself some time to process what just happened to you. Don’t lose yourself to that state of shock, but don’t force yourself to process the accident either. Take your time to breathe and get yourself together, so you’re able to get things moving. The first thing that you need to do after that is to make sure that you’re not injured, at least not severely. If you’re not okay, call the ambulance as fast as you can or anyone from your emergency contact list. However, if you are fine then get out of the car and start taking down information. Write important things down like the timing of the accident and the street name. Write down the name and license plate of the person you crashed your car against. If there are police officers around, then ask for the badge numbers and names and write this information too.
2. Collect Evidence
The next step would be for you to gather evidence. So, make sure to take pictures of your car and your surroundings. If you or anyone in your car is injured, take pictures of the injury as well. It will also greatly benefit your case if you take some statements from witnesses. If there were people around and they witnessed the accident happen, then you might want to politely ask them if they’re okay with giving official statements and signing next to them.
3. Take a Copy of Your Medical Report
If you’re involved in an automobile accident then there is a high chance that you have an injury of sorts. This is why it’s important to have yourself checked after you leave the location where the incident took place. This step is divided into two parts because you’ll be visiting a doctor who’s going to check up on you physically. Then he’ll write a report that describes your exact status. The second part would be for you to go to a psychologist who will also write a report that describes the emotional turbulence that you might be going through because of this accident. Keep these reports safe with you so you can give them to your lawyer.
4. Hire a Lawyer
The most important step in this list is contacting a lawyer. After you’ve settled down, you must call a specialized lawyer who can help you out with your claim and get you the compensation you deserve. You also need to know that it’s best to hire a lawyer who is locally-based in the city or state where the accident happened because personal injury laws may vary by state. If you’re visiting a city with high car accident rates like Peoria, you can look for Peoria, Arizona personal injury attorneys before you get there just to be safe. It’s generally a good idea to know that you have the numbers of specialized lawyers who can help you if you’re going to be in a city with high vehicle accident rates.
5. Contact the Insurance Company
Now that you’ve done most of the essential steps, you have a few ones left, and one of them is to get in contact with the insurance company. You don’t have to directly do it, since you’ve hired a lawyer who can help out with that. Your lawyer will simply show them the evidence and based on that they might compensate you.
6. Go to Court
Insurance company employees are not the easiest to deal with, especially that sometimes the evidence collected is not enough for them. So, if things escalate you might need to go to court. Again, you’re not actually expected to do that because your lawyer can go there instead of you. He will present your case, the events, and the evidence, and the court will decide whether you get compensated or not.
All in all, being in a car accident is a stressful experience that anyone can go through. It is important that you try to remain calm and collected should you ever find yourself in such an unfortunate situation. You need to make sure that you don’t have any life-threatening injuries first before taking any further steps. Next, make sure that you gather enough information and
evidence about the accident. Save your medical reports and give all of this information to your lawyer so they can get you the compensation you deserve.
