Being involved in a car accident or a personal injury can be an unsettling scenario. For instance, in the case of a car accident, your interest will be significantly different from that of the insurance company. Why, you might ask? The reason is that the insurance company wants to pay you as little as possible, whereas, ideally, you want to recover as much as possible.
Clearly, there is a contradiction in interest, which makes you wonder how you can maximize your personal injury settlement.
Follow the tips given below:
Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer
Making the most of your personal injury settlement is almost always guaranteed if you hire an attorney. If the accident happened in New York and you live in Rochester, you should consider the Rochester Personal Injury Lawyers as your representatives as you will have a better outcome compared to if you try to deal with an insurance company on your own.
Without a personal injury lawyer by your side, the odds are stacked in the favor of the insurance company.
Avoid Accepting the First Offer
In a typical case scenario, the insurance company will do its best to settle very fast. They will ask you for your medical bills and give you the bare minimum amount to compensate you for the potential damages. On that note, never make the mistake of accepting the first offer coming your way. The first offer is a trick that the insurance company uses to get rid of all claims.
The best you can do is to talk to an attorney first, and if not – just make sure that you are rejecting the first offer.
Don’t Delay Filing A Claim
The next tip that can help you secure a higher settlement value for your personal injury claim is to file the insurance claim immediately. Ideally, you want to file the insurance claim with both the insurance companies, which are the insurance companies for the car that hit you, and your very own insurance company.
By filing an insurance claim with both insurance companies, you will be better served, and you can secure a good settlement value.
Take Medical Treatment Seriously
The worst that you can do in a personal injury case scenario is to delay medical treatment. The best you can do is to get medical treatment right away. It doesn’t matter whether you are seeing your primary care physician for this purpose or whether you are visiting the emergency room; it is incredibly critical for you to get medical attention right away.
Now, if you make the mistake of delaying medical attention, you will give the insurance company a chance to diminish your claim.
Go to All Medical Appointments
To make the most of your personal injury settlement, you should not stop seeing your physical therapist or doctor. You must make sure to show up to all your medical appointments until you get discharged. Also, make sure that there is no gap in the treatment to occur, which means that you cannot start a treatment and then stop the treatment for six months before resuming the treatment.
If you avoid regular treatments, you will only provide the insurance company with more tools to diminish or deny your claim.
Be Open to the Medical Advisor
You must be open and very clear when communicating with your medical advisor at the time of telling them about the pain you have. For instance, if you go to the emergency room after an accident and you don’t tell the ER doctor about the pain you are having in your right arm when you try to recover from it in six months, you will give the insurance company the ammunition that they are looking for to deny the claim.
Here is how things go: if something isn’t stated in the medical records, it simply doesn’t exist. You need everything on the record for the insurance company to see.
Be Mindful of the Tactics of the Insurance Company
Another good thing to know is that you must be prepared for the insurance company to try their best to limit your recovery based on any of your pre-existing conditions. It is normal for many to have minor issues, such as back pain, leg pain, a disc problem, or anything else that is there from the past. Now, you should know that your insurance company will have access to every claim that you have ever filed.
You cannot hide anything from the insurance company. Also, if you have a big claim, the insurance company will dig up your past medical records, too. This aspect indicates the importance of having a plan for dealing with your pre-existing medical conditions that aren’t related to this accident.
Be Prepared to Defend Past Medical Conditions
You must be prepared to argue how your pre-existing medical conditions got worse by the accident. However, you should know that this can be an incredibly tough argument to make. If you are going to try to establish the fact that your past medical conditions got worse due to the accident, you must have an attorney by your side. So, make sure to consult with an attorney first.
The attorney, due to their massive experience and level of expertise, will know exactly how to handle the situation better than you.
Maintain All Documents
To make the most of your personal injury settlement, you must maintain everything and keep a record of everything. This means that you must keep the prescriptions that the doctor prescribed you for Advil. Also, you must keep the clothes that you were wearing at the time of the accident. If you have been in a slip-and-fall accident, make sure to keep the shoes that you were wearing at the time of the accident.
Similarly, you might want to keep a mileage book for the record of the miles that you drove to and from your medical appointments. As we mentioned before, make sure that you have everything documented because if it is not documented, you will have a hard time proving it.
Final Thoughts
Finally, be vigilant about what you post on social media. Why, you might ask? The reason is that the insurance company is watching you. They are watching what you are doing, and the insurance adjuster is checking your social media posts. If you have a serious claim, they might even hire an investigator to follow you around to see how you are doing.
