How to File a Personal Injury Claim After a Car Accident

So, you’ve been in a car accident that wasn’t your fault. You’ve already sought emergency medical care and you’ve filed a police car. Now you want to file a personal injury claim against the other driver so that your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering are compensated for. The best advice is to hire a New Jersey car accident attorney to handle the claim for you, but if you’re wondering how the process works, here are the steps to filing a personal injury claim after a car accident.

Step 1: Get Medical Care

It’s best if you get medical care at the scene of the accident or by going to a hospital or urgent care clinic right after the accident happens. But, if you haven’t done that yet, you need to do it now. The earlier you can document medical attention for injuries related to the car accident, the better it is for your claim’s success. Even if you don’t think you’re hurt, injuries can appear days and even weeks afterward, so having a doctor take a look at possible injuries is important from the outset.

Step 2: Gather Documentation

Important documents that you will need to file your personal injury claim include your medical bills and treatment history, the police report, witness statements, your personal statement, statements related to loss of work and wages, and statements related to how the injuries have affected your life and that of your loved ones.

Step 3: Investigate

This is where a personal injury attorney will really be valuable because they’ll have access to investigators and tools that can help establish what happened before, during, and after the car accident. This evidence is crucial to establishing fault and negligence on the behalf of the other driver. If you don’t use an attorney, you may not have access to important resources like an accident reconstructionist and a private investigator to track down witnesses.

Step 4: Establish Negligence

As a result of your investigation, you’ll have evidence to establish negligence on the behalf of the other driver. For example, if they failed to yield or use their turn signal and it resulted in an accident, they will be considered negligent. If they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs, they would be considered negligent. This is a very challenging step in the process and without it, you won’t have a case, so getting an attorney involved may be the best way to prove negligence.

Step 5: File the Claim

This step will depend on the rules in your jurisdiction for serving notice of a claim. An attorney will know exactly how to handle this step, but if you’re not using a lawyer, you will need to talk to the courts about how to serve notice of the claim to everyone else involved.

Conclusion

Once you’ve filed the personal injury claim, settlement negotiations can begin and if a settlement can’t be reached, you’ll have to be prepared to file a lawsuit and take the other party to court. Again, a personal injury attorney can take care of the entire process for you, ensuring that everything is filed on time and correctly so that your rights are protected every step of the way.