How To Maximize Potential Compensation In Your Car Crash Case

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How To Maximize Potential Compensation In Your Car Crash Case

12 November 2015
 Categories: Law, Articles

After being injured in a car accident, you'll have to negotiate with an adjuster for the insurance company that represents the person who's at fault for your injuries. This negotiation process is never fun and games, as the adjuster is sure to work hard at minimizing any payments they'll be responsible for providing you with. So if your case is potentially worth thousands of dollars, it's essential to hire an experienced lawyer who focuses on personal injury cases and knows the laws inside and out. Here's what you can do to help your lawyer maximize potential compensation in your car crash case:

Take Photos

It's important to take photos that document the accident and help prove your point of view about what happened. If possible, go back to the accident scene and take photos of the ground, landmarks, and any other visual information in the area that is pertinent to your case. It's also important to photograph your entire vehicle up close and in sufficient lighting so that damage from the accident can be clearly seen without glare. If you have been physically injured, take photos of your bodily injuries once a week throughout the proceedings of your case to help prove how long you're having to deal with said injuries.

Find Witnesses

While you're at the accident scene taking photos, take the time to talk to people living in the area who may have seen what happened. If you do find witnesses to the accident, ask them to fill out a simple form stating their names, contact information, and the specifics of what they saw when the accident happened. You may want to ask your lawyer to create your own personalized form and make copies of it before looking for witnesses to ensure that you get the information you want and need from each of them. This will ensure that nothing important, such as a license plate number, is overlooked when witnesses relay their accounts.

Gain Some Written Insight

It can be helpful to ask your friends and family to write accounts of their insight into the pain and suffering you've had to go through since being in an accident. The kind of pain they see you in while they're in your presence, the loss of work you have experienced, and what you are doing with your time during recovery can all be recorded by loved ones and turned over to your lawyer, which will help to fill in the blanks. Like with getting witness information, you can have personalized forms created to have your loved ones fill out – but open letters that allow them to speak in their own words and in their own way may be more insightful to your lawyer and the courts if they have to get involved in your case.

Record Your Progress Updates

In addition to having your friends and family members provide insight into your healing progress, it's important that you document your progress personally. Consider keeping a diary dedicated just to aspects of your life that involve the accident. Each morning or evening take the time to record how much pain medication you've had to take, whether or not you had to miss work and if so, how much money was lost, and what your overall mindset if like in regards to your pain and suffering. Your diary can be used as an extensive account of your life after the accident, and can be used to help calculate the amount of compensation your lawyer should ask for.

You'll find that these techniques will not only help your lawyer maximize potential compensation for your case, but it also help to keep you involved in your case and ensure that you maintain a sense of control over the process. Contact a local personal injury lawyers, such as Otorowski Johnston Morrow & Golden P.L.L.C., for more information.