Free Personal Injury Tips and Advice

There are over 14 million law suits that are annually filed in United States and these include personal injuries. Personal injury is an insurance cover that caters for people who have been involved in an accident that has been caused by another person. This cover benefits the injured party because it caters for all the medical expenses incurred after the incident. However, there are cases whereby the law suit can be unsuccessful and the injured party ends up paying for the medical expenses from his/her own pockets. The following tips can be of assistance in successfully winning personal injury claim:

Have A Compensation Amount
Once you have been involved in a personal injury incident, calculate the amount you will want as compensation. This is often becomes to some people but the major factors to consider are the medical expenses, the salary and bonuses you lost while recuperating and the car repair costs. Before engaging in the claim process, use this amount as a backbone value and never reveal it to the insurance adjustor. This is because, once he gets wind of the amount, he will be able to bargain for a low settlement offer.

Know The Claim Procedures And Processes
Most do not fully comprehend the claim and negotiation process. They often assume their lawyers will handle everything. The procedure is really simple; involving filing a claim document and showing up before an insurance adjustor to discuss your case. The adjustor will then make a settlement offer that is usually lower than what you want. This process goes on until an agreement has been reached.

Ask For Justification
There are times when the claims adjustor offers a value that is way low than your offer. Being a negotiation approach, one should avoid hastily giving his/her offer as a counter offer. Instead, inquire as to why the settlement offer is low. Once the reasons have been given, jot them down and respond to the adjustor via a formal letter. The insurance company will then reply by offering a more reasonable and realistic settlement fee.

Read Free Most Common Personal Injury Tips and Advice

Personal Injury claims are designed to help people who were injured as a result of some one else negligence pay for all their bills. Most of the time, these claims are used to pay medical bills, lost wages and to compensate for all the suffering and inconvenience that they faced as a result of the accident. In the US, there are 14 million lawsuits filed ever year and not all of them are successful. In cases where the lawsuits are unsuccessful, the victim will have to pay for their own medical bills and even the lawyer fees of the guilty. It's unfair, but that is the risk that has to be taken when filing a personal injury claim. Hopefully, the tips below can assist you to win a claim.

1. Determine a claim amount: when you are involved in an accident and you are intending to claim for personal injury, you will need to have idea about how much money you would need. Remember, this is not your lucky number or a number you pull from the sky, this amount has to include your medical bills, your lost wages, lost bonuses, and it has to cover the costs to repair the car. Make sure the amount will satisfy all this and you would have a good compensation. You should only tell your lawyer of this amount so they can negotiate to get the exact amount or more. Do not disclose it to the other party because they will try and negotiate it to a lower amount.

2. Get acquainted with the processes and procedures: this is neither a simple nor a difficult thing to do. Your lawyer can fill you in on what you should do. Basically, you need to fill in a bunch of forms, and be present at meetings with the insurance adjuster to discuss your claims. You will keep discussing until you have reached a settlement amount.

3. Get things justified and in writing: Suppose that the insurance adjuster offers you a lower amount than what you want, ask them why and how they calculate this. Once they have provided you with their reasons, you can respond to their offer in writing. When they realize that you mean business, they will start increasing their offers. As soon as you have agreed on all the details, make sure that you have an official agreement on everything. Make sure everything is in the form of a legal, binding document and should contain the amount of compensation that was agreed upon.

4. Get a Personal Injury lawyer: Not all lawyers can be personal injury lawyers. Basically, you can hire a lawyer that does other things as well, but it will be more beneficial for you if you hire someone who is well versed in personal injury cases. You need someone whose main cases are personal injury cases. You need their experience and skill to help you win your case, either in or out of court. A good lawyer can get you the amount you want after going to court but a great lawyer can get you more than what you need without even going to court. Give that a thought.

How are Damages figured in Oklahoma?

When someone else is responsible for causing personal injuries they are responsible to pay for the damages. But what are damages? In Oklahoma damages are defined as:

the amount which will compensate for all detriment proximately caused thereby, whether it could have been anticipated or not.  23 O.S. 61

A judge, jury or insurance adjuster cannot undue the damages which have been caused.  All they can do is award an amount of money that will compensate for all detriment.  When a jury in Oklahoma tries to determine the amount of money to compensate the injured person, they are to consider the following:

1.    The injured person’s physical pain and suffering, past and future;

2.    The injured person’s mental pain and suffering, past and future;

3.    The injured person’s age;

4.    The injured person’s physical condition immediately before and after the accident;

5.    The nature and extent of the injured person’s injuries;

6.    Whether the injuries are permanent;

7.    The physical impairment;

8.    The disfigurement;

9.    Loss of earnings or time;

10.  Impairment of earning capacity;

11.  The reasonable expenses of the necessary medical care, treatment, and services, past and future.

Once the jury has considered all the factors they can then determine an amount of money that is appropriate.  However, that is not necessarily what the injured person will receive.   The Oklahoma legislature has decided there is a limit to how fair they want to be with victims of negligence.  They have enacted damage caps in Oklahoma to limit how much negligent people and companies have to pay for the damages they have caused.

With few exceptions, non-economic damages are limited to $350,000.00.  23 O.S. 61.2  This can make a big difference for a retired person when they suffer serious injuries.  As an example, let’s start the example with a man who is entering his golden age of retirement, who is active with hobbies, does projects around the house and enjoys playing with his grandchildren.  On a nice day he takes his motorcycle for a ride.  While riding he comes to a complete stop for traffic.   A person in a car behind him, for an unknown reason, is not paying attention and drives over him.  The retired person has his pelvic bone crushed and suffers several other injures.  He is taken to the hospital, undergoes multiple surgeries and is in the hospital for a month.  From the hospital he is transferred to a nursing home where they take care of him and perform physical therapy on him.  After a year in the nursing home, interrupted by a few more surgeries, he is released to return home.  He never fully recovers and uses a cane to walk around.  His economic damages are the medical bills from all the medical providers including the ambulance, hospital, nursing home, and the doctors.  The bills total near a million dollars.  He was retired so there are no lost wages.  Everything he has experienced, the pain and suffering, the lost time, the permanent impairments and loss of ability to live a normal active life, the loss of the ability to enjoy the golden years of retirement are taken away from him and these damages are capped at $350,000.00.  The insurance company pays the medical bills and then gives a check to the victim for $350,000.00.  Although $350,000 is not insignificant, it does not seem a fair trade for “all detriment proximately caused thereby.”

Another example of how the damage caps work in Oklahoma can be read in this news story.  The jury is not told about the $350,000 limitation in their award for non-economic damages.  They think they are fairly compensating the victim, instead the fair compensation is secretly being capped.

CONTACT

J. Todd Willhoite

Phone (918) 341-3101

501 S. Lynn Riggs Blvd., Ste A

Claremore, OK 74017

http://www.abbylawoffices.com/