Personal Injury Claims: When You Can Handle Your Own
Injury insurance claims don't have to involve lawyers -- it's often smart to handle your own claim after an accident.
With basic accident claims process knowledge, a bit of organization, and a little patience, you may be able to handle your own personal injury claim without a lawyer -- and without your insurance company's unfairly denying or reducing your compensation. If so, you can wind up with considerably more compensation for your injury because you won't have to pay costly lawyers' fees.
Types of claims you can often handle on your own include those involving:
- automobile, cycle, or pedestrian accidents
- slip or trip and fall accidents
- home accidents, and
- accidents with defective products.
Of course, there are times when a lawyer's services can be helpful or even necessary, especially in situations involving severe or permanently disabling injuries and certain types of complicated accidents, such as those involving medical malpractice or toxic exposure. (To learn more, read When You Need a Lawyer to Handle Your Personal Injury Claim.)
Due to the following four reasons, in many cases you can represent yourself.
The Claims Process Is Simple
Despite what the insurance industry and some lawyers would like you to think, settling an injury claim with an insurance company is usually quite simple. Most claims involve no more than a few short letters and phone calls with an insurance adjuster who has no legal training, so you don't need to know technical language or complex legal rules. In fact, your right to be compensated often depends on nothing more than commonsense observations about who was careful and who wasn't, and how serious your injuries are.
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