Accident Compensation

Accident Compensation – What you should know.

Accident compensation can either be clear cut or very difficult to gauge depending on the type of damage and injuries sustained. For example, if you run off the road in your car and run down some one’s fence, then the cost of repairing the fence and any damaged plants to return the area to how it was prior to the accident would be the amount of accident compensation required.

If you have a car accident and the other driver hits the steering wheel with their face and looses a tooth, the compensation for that tooth and the dental and any other medical bills would also be fairly straight forward, as would the cost to repair their car. In these cases the negotiation is fairly straight forward and should flow to an out come in a short time frame.

Where accident claim compensation becomes more difficult is where it is hard to be able to work out exactly what the injuries sustained cost. If we look at whiplash for example, then the pain and discomfort can last a considerable time. You will need to seek medical treatment as soon as possible while documenting each visit and ensuring that you keep receipts. If there is a course of exercise plans laid out for you by your doctor or physiotherapist, then ensure that you keep a diary that you can enter the date and time that you did the exercises. If you are going to be seeking accident compensation then you are going to require a lawyer.

Rather than a general practitioner, ensure that you are seeing a lawyer that is well versed in accident compensation cases and can argue your case in court. To be able to do this successfully, they will need as much evidence as you can provide to ensure that you gain the correct settlement amount.

Be aware that if there is serious injury involved in the accident, that the actual compensation payout could take months or years as the case moves its way through the legal system. Also, the medical practitioners need time to be able to review how the accident victims are recuperating or if a full injury recovery is even possible. For example, a person hurt in an accident may only be able to use 80% or 70% of their arm strength despite therapy. If this is the case then the legal parties need to work out an amount of compensation that is going to be acceptable to the victim, and is also a realistic amount of compensation.