If an accident has caused you to suffer a personal injury or some other loss, and if you would like to be compensated for the resulting damages, then you ought to set aside a time for sharing details about your situation with the insurance company.
Be sure to get in touch with the company that sold you an insurance policy.
Even if you did not cause the accident, you must contact your own insurance company, in order to satisfy the terms of your contract.
Once you have filed a personal injury claim with the other driver’s insurance company, then you should anticipate a call from one of the same company’s adjusters. How should you respond to that same call?
Ask the caller to identify himself. In response to requests for information, offer a limited number of facts. The personal injury lawyer in Newmarket always advices that you should never feel compelled to settle the dispute during that first conversation.
Make it clear that you intend to limit the number of times that you want to speak with the adjuster. If you have hired a lawyer, provide the caller with the lawyer’s contact information. Be sure to take notes, while conversing with the person at the other end of the line.
After your treating physician has told you that you have arrived at the point of maximum medical improvement (MMI) then prepare for further contact with the defendant’s insurance agency. Gather all of the relevant evidence and then work with your lawyer to prepare a demand letter, and send it to the insurance adjuster. In that letter, include the following information:
• The name of any injured adult, teen or child
• The nature of the reported injury
• The nature of any treatment that was used on the same injury
• The extent of any income loss
• The extent of any other damages
• Conclude by demanding a given amount of money.
The nature of contact with insurance agency during negotiations
The nature of that contact is up to the claimant. Claimants that have hired a lawyer can expect that same lawyer to negotiate with the agency’s adjuster, or other employee that has been chosen by the insurer.
Claimants without a lawyer should exercise a combination of patience and persistence when taking part in the negotiations. Allow for pauses, but seek an explanation for any long wait.
Final contact
That final contact comes after agreement on a settlement figure. At that point, the claimant must sign a release form, one that has come from the insurance company. By signing that form, the claimant/victim agrees to free the insurer of any chance that more of the claimant’s accident-related problems might be raised again, in an effort to seek more money in the form of compensation.
