Personal Injury
Getting into an accident is not fun at all, and that is not at all a controversial statement. However, filing an injury claim with an insurance provider is not likely to be a fun experience either. There are a lot of questions and complications you may have with respect to filing an injury claim, and some are certainly going to be valid ones to have. It may even be a concern that the location will make a difference for filing an injury claim. One question that often arises for people in the Buffalo, New York area is how soon people after an accident should a person file an injury claim, which we will examine today.
How soon after an accident should you file an injury claim?
There are going to be certain variables involved in when to file an injury claim, and in turn, too much confusion to do with when you actually do so. As soon as you are aware of having experienced injuries from an accident, you should ensure that whatever insurance provider you are going to for compensation is informed of the case as quickly as possible. The primary reason why you should do this quickly is that there are filing deadlines.
There are multiple deadlines that one has to take into account after they get involved in an accident. For example, the accident itself has to be reported in 10 days or less, and the kinds of claims you can file will ultimately depend on how you want to go about things. A no-fault claim — meaning that the claim is simply taking from one’s own insurer instead of from the other person’s insurance. A claim against another driver’s insurance does not have a specific deadline, though it should be done somewhat quickly regardless. However, not all drivers are going to have insurance, regardless of the illegality of such a thing. In order to deal with these kinds of people, a person would have 90 days to file a claim with the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation (MVAIC). MVAIC is also responsible for no-fault benefits.
When you file an injury claim with your insurance provider, it is important to have a general idea of the kinds of damages you have actually incurred from the accident. These damages are not inherently going to be evident from the get-go, and some injuries turn out to get worse over time, or perhaps do not go away for an extended period of time. This can have an unfortunate domino effect for you, as not only do you rack up medical expenses, but you also run the risk of losing out on wages due to your inability to perform the job that you previously did.
When you work with insurers on this, there is a very real risk that things could get very complicated, very quickly. As a result, having a Buffalo car Accident Lawyer working alongside you can make things go much more smoothly. One of the biggest barriers for insured people to get the compensation they are entitled to is the fact that insurance companies are a business, and businesses exist to make money. As such, they may view denying you compensation you deserve as a worthwhile decision to make some extra money. If they do deny your injury claim, that does not mean that you have no options going forward.
You are entitled to file an appeal with your insurance provider, either addressing the issues that they had with your initial filing or disputing the reason why they denied your claim in the first place. Having a lawyer for this process is an important thing for this process. It ensures that the number of reasons they could have to deny your claim is reduced, and an appeal is more likely to be well-argued if presented by an attorney. Plus, by filing as early as is reasonable, you ensure that you have to deal with these headaches for less amount of time than you would otherwise.
Of course, there is something in between getting the exact compensation you are seeking and getting nothing at all. Sometimes, an insurance provider will attempt to provide you less compensation for your injury claim than you asked. There at times may be a valid reason to do this, but often, it is simply a matter of penny pinching. There is another layer to whether to get your claim finished as quickly as possible, as if you go in before you have a proper understanding of the damages you have sustained, you may not have very much wiggle room to seek the compensation that your damages call for by the end of the day. This is a frustrating situation, but with an attorney helping you out, it will be over before you know it.
