Want to read more? See our complete Personal Injury Settlement Booklet.

Put simply, a personal injury claim or case refers to someone who has been injured in an automobile accident and is seeking recovery money from the responsible party, almost always the underwriting insurance company of the at-fault driver.

Before you are awarded any recovery money for your injury, it must be proven that the careless person or business that caused the accident was actually negligent. This is called proving liability or responsibility, and is generally done by negotiation with the at-fault insurance company, either by yourself or with the help of an attorney.

If an agreement (or settlement) can not be reached, you have the option of taking the claim to court but are guaranteed nothing. Whether agreed upon by the at-fault insurance company or awarded by a judge or jury, a personal injury victim may be entitled to remuneration for past and future medical expenses, wage loss, pain and suffering, and loss in quality of life.

Note: If only your automobile was damaged in an accident, then you don’t have a personal injury case—however, you may have a property damage case. But many personal injury lawyers do not handle a property damage claims unless the person has also suffered injuries.

In addition to facing a jury, you will have added costs and expenses just by filing a lawsuit. Most attorneys increase their fees if you want to file a lawsuit, so be sure to find out what the fine print says in your attorney retainer about filing a lawsuit. These added costs come directly out of your settlement and often times are not reimbursable. This can be a huge gamble for you especially if you have a borderline offer already on the table.

Once you file a lawsuit, all offers are taken off the table and the end result can be better or it can be worse. If you end up with a worse offer than what was originally presented to you from the insurance company prior to the jury verdict, too bad so sad. You are stuck with the jury verdict and potential costs of filing the lawsuit. So unless you are 100% certain that you will get a better award from a jury, think twice about filing that lawsuit.

1. You must give a recorded statement to the at-fault insurance company or your claim will be denied.
2. You must sign a medical authorization at the request of the at-fault insurance company or your claim will be denied.
3. If you make a claim for uninsured motorist benefits, your insurance company will raise your insurance rates.
4. If you make a claim for PIP it will raise your insurance rates.
5. If you submit a reasonable settlement demand to the insurance company you will get a reasonable settlement offer.
6. If you file a claim with your own insurance company they will treat you better than the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
7. If you get into an accident that was not your fault there will be enough insurance to pay for all your bills, lost wages, and injuries.
8. You can expect the same settlement that your friend, cousin, neighbor, co- worker, etc. received for his or her accident case with similar injuries.
9. You will get you money from the jury or insurance adjuster for all your past and future medical bills, and loss of income, because your doctor says you were injured.
10. You will get rich if you are in an accident because.

Remember, each personal injury claim is different, and settlement awards vary depending on state and insurance companies. For a free evaluation of your claim, click here, or see our Personal Injury Settlement Booklet for step-by-step instructions on settling your own claim.

1. Waiting to seek medical attention. The longer you wait to see a doctor after an accident—even if it’s to see if you can get better on your own—the harder time you’ll have convincing the at-fault insurance company you were injured.
2. Failing to properly report the accident. This means you either didn’t file a report with the police at the scene of the accident or didn’t take pictures of the damage to your vehicle and injuries sustained.
3. Divulging too much information to the insurance company. Recovery from an injury takes time. Nevertheless, insurance adjusters will try and get you to commit to an injury, often the same day of the crash, even before a doctor has properly diagnosed and treated you. This is an attempt by them to reduce a payout to you. Don’t do it unless you want to minimize your claim (Simply say “I’ll know more once I finish treatment with my doctor.”)
4. Waiting to file a claim. As soon as you are able (the day of, if possible), file a claim with the insurance company. This can be done by you or an attorney, the latter of which can be added to your original claim at anytime, so long as a settlement hasn’t been reached.
5. Exaggerating or lying about your injuries. Don’t do it unless you want to kiss your legitimate recovery money goodbye.
6. Failing to complete medical treatment. If you skip visits or fail to complete your treatment, the insurance company will argue you weren’t really hurt in an accident. Stick to the program unless your doctor says otherwise, even if you feel you are getting better.
7. Exaggerating or lying about personal mobility. Some people do this in an effort to inflate their general damages award (aka “pain and suffering”). This is an auto accident, not the lottery. So for the second time, don’t fudge the truth. Be honest so you can get compensated for your injuries and loss of life (if any).

For a more comprehensive explanation of personal injury recovery, please see our Settlement Booklet.

5. ‘Whiplash’

Whiplash and whiplash-associated disorders represent a wide range of injuries caused by a sudden distortion of the neck.

Insurance companies often associate the term with exaggerated or fraudulent claims, so saying, “I have whiplash,” could delay the payment process.

Refer to your injuries in medical terms if you can, or wait until your doctor makes a diagnosis.

Remember, the insurance companies are in the business to make money. They can make more money in profits by paying out less money in insurance claims. Be careful in what you choose to say to the insurances companies and how you choose to say it. If you say the wrong things, you will hurt the value of your claim. If you are unsure how to answer a question from the adjuster, tell him that you will let him know the next time you speak to him and politely end the call. Then find some resources on our site or on the internet that answers the question for the adjuster and the next time you speak with him, you will be prepared to say the right things.

Letting your emotions dictate your negotiations is a sure fire way to lose your battle against the insurance adjuster. If you lose your cool and start making this a personal battle with the adjuster, you will never get what you are looking for. All too often people end up having to call an attorney because they just couldn’t get anywhere with the adjuster on their own. More often than not, the reason they couldn’t get anywhere with the adjuster was because the adjuster got under their skin and they lost their cool. Once that happens, negotiations stop because both parties dig their heels in and neither one wants to concede to the other.

When negotiating with the adjuster, keep your emotions checked at the door. If you feel your temperature rising, politely end the call and take a couple of days before calling the adjuster back. If you just can’t work with the adjuster, call his supervisor and ask for your file to be transfered to a new adjuster. If you are still having problems with a second adjuster, the problem is likely you. You may be the kind of person that just can’t keep their emotions in check and that’s OK, you’ll just need to hire someone to do your negotiating for you.

The first thing to understanding how much your claim is worth is to break your claim down into two categories. The first category is your property damage. The more damage to your vehicle, the more likely you are seriously hurt. This isn’t always the case because cars are safer than they have ever been, but it is a good indication to the insurance company that you are more likely to be hurt in a serious accident versus a minor accident.

The second category is your actual medical treatment and therapy. This is the bulk of your evidence and where you really start to determine how much your accident claim is worth. If you have $500 in medical bills and you make a good recovery, your claim probably isn’t worth much more than just your medical bills. However, if you spent 3 days in the ICU and 6 months in recovery with 2 major surgeries and $60,000 in medical bills, your claim is obviously worth a lot more. The next step in determining the value of your injury claim is figuring out how the insurance company values your evidence and offers you pain and suffering for your injuries.

Most insurance companies have some form of a computer system to help them determine how much your auto injury claim is worth. Allstate and some of the other larger insurance companies use the most famous one named Collosus. The way this computer program works is you input all the CPT codes from the medical providers contained in their bills. The computer then determines what kind of injury you have based on these codes. From there, it compares your claim to every claim similar to yours that is contained in the database. It then gives the adjuster a range they can offer you to try and settle your claim.

But don’t be fooled by this system of determining the value of your claim. Every adjuster out their will low ball you in an effort to get you to sign off on a value less than what Collosus may tell them your claim is worth. There are many reasons for this. Some adjusters just like to win bragging rights with their co-workers. They can brag that they were able to get someone with a $50,000 claim to settle for $15,000. Some adjusters may low ball you to look good for management to try and get a promotion. Others may low ball you because they are jaded. Whatever the reason, you will likely get low balled by the adjuster when it comes time to negotiate.

To really determine the value of your specific claim, you need to build your case right from the very moment the accident happens. You can imagine that this can be a lengthy and complicated process and you would be right. Being that it is a complicated process, it would be impossible to really help you determine the value of your claim in a single blog post. Luckily for you, we created an easy to follow Settlement Booklet that will guide you from start to finish how how to settle your injury claim with the insurance company. Using this tool and the other resources on our site, you should have a good idea of how much your accident claim is worth and how to successfully negotiate your claim with the adjuster.

Since the accident my wife was in happened on a Friday afternoon, we weren’t able to get in contact with the adjuster until after the weekend. On Monday morning, I called over to Progressive to set up the claim and talk with the adjuster. After giving him the details that I wanted to give him and being light on details on the ones he wanted, he asked if he could set up an appointment to meet with my wife. I said that would be fine and we scheduled an appointment for Wednesday.

Wednesday came and my wife and I were driving to meet with the adjuster. I took a few minutes in the car to give my wife some pointers so that she would be prepared for what the adjuster was going to ask her. I could have predicted the conversation any better than I did. In fact, you can call me Nostradamus because the adjuster was word for word on what I told my wife to expect. The key points of the conversation went as follows with some inserted commentary for your benefit:

Adjuster: So, tell me about your injury?

Wife: Well, right now I have some pretty severe headaches that are constant all the time. Also, my neck and back are pretty sore.

Adjuster: How bad do you think it is? (Loaded question, if you say, “oh its not that bad or I think I’ll be okay” look out because he will use this against you later on)

Wife: I don’t know how bad it is right now. I went to the ER and they said I should see some improvement by the end of the weekend. If it wasn’t getting better or if it was getting worse, they told me I should start some therapy. (Notice how she uses the doctors opinions to answer this question. Instead of giving her opinion on the injury, she deferred it to the professionals)

Adjuster: Well since you are hurt, can you sign this release of information so I can start gathering your medical records?

Me: No. Instead of letting you gather her records, we will gather them for you and submit them to you as we get them. (If you sign their release of information, you lose control over what they see. You want to submit what you want them to see and not let them have unbridled access to your medical history)

Adjuster: Ok, that’s fine. Let me tell you what we can do for you. I can offer you $750 today to have you sign a release. We at Progressive don’t have to offer you anything, but we are willing to give you something to show you we are all about customer service.  We at Progressive just want you to have the best experience possible during these stressful times. (This offer is NOT about customer service. This offer is intended to get the file off of the adjusters desk. It is also Progressive trying to limit the amount they have to pay out on this claim to line their pockets with bigger profits. This offer goes out to every single person. If someone accepts this offer this early in their claim, the insurance company wins. The longer your claim is open, the larger the likelihood you will have increased medical bills. That means the larger the amount that Progressive or any insurance company will be required to pay out on any given claim eating into their posh profits)

Me: I appreciate your offer, but we are in no hurry to settle. We want to make sure that we fully explore my wife’s injury to make sure she doesn’t have anything too serious wrong with her. Once she is done with treatment, we can discuss settlement at that time. (The only time you should consider accepting any offer from the insurance company is after you have finished your treatment. Once you accept the offer from the insurance company and your case is closed, you can’t re-open it. That means any additional medical bills you incur after you accept the offer will be your responsibility to pay)

We left our meeting with that and told him that we would keep him updated along the way. Next time, my wife takes our Crash Evaluator and the results will be published.

Let me be clear, this is not for someone who is DUI to find out tricks on how to get off with the least penalty possible. I despise DUI’s and frankly, I have no sympathy if you choose to drive under the influence. This post is designed to give tips to those hurt by DUI’s a little more leverage to get greater compensation.

If you take a DUI case to court, the judge will instruct the jury to award what is called punitive or exemplary damages. This is defined as compensation in excess of actual damages. That means the jury is instructed to penalize the DUI defendant extra just because he was DUI. This is to send a message to the DUI defendant that what he did was more than just an accident, but his actions to drive under the influence are socially wrong.

But what responsibility does the insurance company have in paying out punitive damages? None. In your policy, it will specifically outline some things that the insurance company will be exempt from paying. Punitive damages is one thing that will be in your policy that the insurance company will not have to pay for. However, I’m going to teach you how to get punitive damages out of the insurance company anyway without having to go to court.

You see, the insurance company has an obligation to try and settle the claim within their insureds policy limits. If they cannot settle the claim within their insureds policy limits, they have failed to protect their insured from financial exposure. Depending on the circumstances on why they did not settle the claim, the insurance company may be exposed to a bad faith lawsuit. I won’t explain that here because it’s complicated, but lets just say a bad faith lawsuit is the last thing any insurance company wants.

This is how you can twist the arm of the insurance company to pay out “punitive” damages. They won’t call it punitive damages, but you will get extra in your settlement for their insured being DUI. Point out to the adjuster that no one likes a drunk driver and if they don’t increase their settlement offer significantly higher, you will have no problem filing a lawsuit against their drunk ass driver. You have to really be willing to file a lawsuit against a DUI. If you show any signs of weakness, the adjuster will not give you what you are asking for. The reason they do not want to represent their DUI in court is they know they will have a hard time winning over a jury.

If you play hardball and really threaten a lawsuit (that may mean hiring an attorney), you will most certainly get an award larger than the average settlement. It’s not uncommon to get a few thousand dollars more than the average and I’ve seen awards tens of thousands of dollars higher than non-DUI cases.

If you are the one that is DUI, look out because you or your insurance company will pay for your bad choices.