Personal Injury: When Can You File For A Settlement?

When Can You File A Settlement?

Generally, there’s no fixed time frame as to when you can file for a settlement. As soon as the personal injury is sustained, you’re entitled to this choice. In a personal injury, the erring party may opt to file a case or a settlement.

In most instances, you can file for a settlement directly when you don’t want the case to drag on for months in court. For example, you need the money right away to cover your medical expenses, the erring party is amicable with you, and other related circumstances that can warrant this recourse.

Why Is Filing For A Settlement Beneficial To You?

There are many good reasons why filing a settlement is your best recourse. But, one of the most compelling has to do with the monetary compensation that you can gain out of the settlement. This financial compensation is also referred to as damages. While money can’t entirely pay for whatever losses you feel, especially those that can’t be valued, it’s a good enough start for you also to heal better from your injury.

The monetary compensation that a settlement seeks to cover includes the following:

• Disability accommodation for your home, for the time that you may be temporarily or worse, permanently disabled due to the injury
• Medical bills
• Loss of support and companionship
• Lost wages
• Diminished quality of life and other emotional sufferings
• Physical pain and mental anguish

 In this process of taking back monetary compensation for your personal injury, you don’t interact with or deal with the party at fault. It’s the insurance company of the erring party that you’ll be dealing with. To ascertain also whether or not the value offered to you by the insurance company is sufficient enough, having a personal injury lawyer by your side helps.

How Is An Offer For Settlement Decided Upon?

Once both parties agree to a settlement as a part of negotiating the injury case, the insurance company generally makes the offer for settlement. In this case, the goal centers on two things: managing the risks to both parties and minimizing the costs. Hence, when you decide to settlement, as the injured party, you also need to be assured through your lawyer that the amount you’re going to receive is just and fair. It’s not undervalued, only so that the insurance company of the at-fault party will have to shell out a lesser amount.

How Do I Begin To File For My Personal Injury Claim?

As daunting as the idea may be, filing a personal injury claim is quite straightforward. It’s even easier than how the process would be, should you choose to file a lawsuit instead. Here’s an overall idea of the personal injury process in filing a personal injury claim:

• Start filing the claim by informing the erring party and their respective insurance company that you’ve been injured in a personal injury. In this stage, it’s imperative that you already have a lawyer by your side. Note, however, that you have to do this as soon as possible as some insurance companies require notification of the injury as soon as 24-48 hours after the injury took place. Be very honest with the facts that you’re going to allege, as intentional misrepresentation can also hurt the viability of your settlement claim

• Give the insurance company time to investigate your claim. This is also why it’s very important that before you even file your settlement claim, you already have gathered all the necessary documents required to prove your side.

• Write a demand letter to the insurance company for your claim. The amount of the compensation that you deem fair and just for your injury should also be included in this demand letter.

• You, along with your lawyer, will then meet with the insurance company to arrive at a settlement. 

Conclusion

When the insurance provider of the erring party immediately pays you a form of settlement, that’s usually a good thing. It saves both parties the hassle and expense of having to go through court. In an ideal world, this is the best path for everyone involved in the case. But this doesn’t always happen. After reading this, however, now you know more about your rights and what you should do for a settlement after a personal injury has been caused you.