Lethbridge Injury Lawyers

Overview

When you file a ‘claim’ it means that you’re telling the insurance company that you are enforcing your legal right to be compensated (or paid) for your injuries, medical expenses, lost wages, pain, and suffering. The claim is usually submitted to the insurance company that represents the person or persons who caused your injuries. At first, your claim will be a formal legal demand made with the help of your personal injury lawyer. No courts or judges will be involved. However, if the insurance company refuses to negotiate a fair settlement based on the formal demand, then your attorney will file a lawsuit. At that point, your claim will be considered a ‘case’ and will follow the court systems rules and timeline.

Notify the Insurance Companies

As soon as possible following the accident, you should notify your insurance company, as well as the insurance company representing the negligent party who caused your injuries. You will give them basic information about the accident, such as the date and approximate time, and that is all. Do not answer any questions, do not admit any fault, and do not accept any settlement offers. You are simply putting it on record that an accident occurred and that you were injured. Your attorney will handle all other communications with them from that point on.

Medical Treatment and Investigation

Before your attorney can submit your claim, it’s important that we know the full extent of your injuries, their relation to the accident, how long it will take you to recover, and how much medical care you’ll require in the future as a result. We want to understand exactly how much damage the accident caused and how much it’s going to cost you now and in the future. The goal is to get you to maximum medical improvement (MMI) which means that you’ve recovered from your injuries as much as physically possible.

While you are completing your medical care and focusing on your health, our team will be performing a thorough investigation of your accident. This may include reviewing the accident or police report, hiring expert witnesses, speaking to eyewitnesses, and more.

Submit Demand Package

Once you’ve reached MMI, and the investigation is complete, your attorney will submit the demand package to the insurance company. The demand package may include:

• Your medical records
• Proof of lost wages
• Copies of all medical bills relating to accident
• Documentation of all financial hardships caused by your medical expenses, loss of income, or reduced ability to work
• Police report
• Eyewitness statements
• Expert witness reports
• And more

Essentially, the demand package will include everything that would be shown to a jury at trial in order to convince the insurance company that you are legally owed money for your injuries. A specific dollar amount will be demanded based on the unique circumstances of your accident, injuries, and family needs.

Settlement

A strong, well-written demand package is often enough to result in a settlement. This means that the insurance company agrees to pay your demands without going to court. They don’t always agree to pay the amount initially demanded, and there are often a few rounds of negotiations before all parties are satisfied. During these negotiations, you should have a limit to how low you will settle for. Our goal is to get you as much as possible, and everything that’s fair. At the end of the day, however, the choice is yours. We want you to feel in control of the settlement because it’s all about your needs, not ours.

Lawsuit

If the insurance company refuses to cooperate, or we cannot come to a settlement agreement with them, the final step is to file a lawsuit. This will make your claim an official legal case.

The steps to the case may include:

• Filing the lawsuit
• PrDiscovery (where both parties swap their claims and investigation materials in order to determine the strength of the other’s arguments)
• Mandatory arbitration or mediation (this is sometimes ordered by a judge)
• Trial

This process is what’s known as ‘litigation’. At any point during litigation, we may finally reach a settlement with the insurance company and the litigation process will come to an end. If your case does go to trial, a judge and jury will make a final decision about your claim and their decision will be final.

Our goal is to reach a fair settlement with the insurance company and avoid litigation, if at all possible. However, we will never encourage you to accept a low or unfair settlement simply to avoid trial. If a trial is what we must do to get you justice, then we’ll be ready.