When your loved one suffers a brain injury due to an accident with another party, you should immediately look into filing a compensation claim. This can give you the funds necessary to care for them in a proper manner while also ensuring that their loss of employment does not affect you or your family’s financial situation in any adverse manner. In this post, we list out seven things that are usually involved in a brain injury claim process.
- Open A Claim
The first thing you need to do is to open a claim. This has to be done both against your own insurer and the insurer of the other party who has caused the injury to your loved one. It is recommended that you get in touch with a good brain injury lawyer. Since they are already experienced in handling various brain injury cases, they will be able to handle the claim process the correct way right from the start.
- Medical Treatment Expenses
While your loved one is in the hospital, you will have to face the financial burden of paying the medical bills. Ensure that you collect all of them and file them safely. Your lawyer will need the bills to claim compensation in the future. They will also be conducting a personal investigation regarding the injury, collecting evidence that can support your case. So, help them every way you can to build up a good case in your favor.
- Let Your Demands Be Known
Tell the attorney about the compensation you demand. Thanks to their experience, they will instantly know whether they are asking a very low compensation or not. The compensation should not just take into consideration the medical expenses alone. It should include all types of losses you have suffered. The loss of income of the loved one should be accounted for. The loss due to inability to work in the future must also be considered. Similarly, the loss of emotional connection with your loved one should also be included in the demands.
- Settlement
When the other parties come to know about your demand, they will respond to it favorably or unfavorably. If they respond favorably, then you are in luck since you can get the settlement amount quickly. But if they do not agree to your demands, then the matter will go to court. Now, you need to understand that the other parties will definitely try to make you lower the demands. Consult your lawyer on this matter. If the lawyer advises you that it is better to accept their offer rather than waste time on the court, then you should heed their suggestion and accept the compensation. But if your lawyer asks you to stay away from it, then you should definitely reject the offer and trust the lawyer to get you a better compensation through trial.
- Lawsuit
Once a lawsuit is filed by the attorney, the matter will go to court. Your lawyer will present all the important evidence that will support your case and incriminate the accused. At the same time, you may also be required to share your story on how the brain injury to your loved one has negatively affected you and your family. Use the opportunity to show the judge and the jury members how disastrous the accident has been and how your family will only be able to live in peace if awarded a satisfactory settlement through the trial. If you can gain the sympathy of the jury, then your chances of getting the desired settlement will be very high.
- Statute Of Limitations
You may need a lawyer for an accident. But before you hire one, you need to check the statute of limitations. As far as California is concerned, you have about two years from the injury to file a compensation claim against other parties. If the claim is filed after two years because of any reason, then your case will never be seen as valid. However, if the statute of limitations is just about to be over, your lawyer should be able to preserve the right of your claim.
- Mandatory Arbitration
There can be situations where a person may not be able to approach the court for compensation. One such example is a brain injury suffered by your loved one due to any complicated surgical procedure. Before the surgery, it is very likely that you will have signed some papers that will make it necessary that any claim between you and the hospital be resolved through mandatory arbitration so that the two of you come to a mutual agreement about compensation without going to court. Be sure to talk with your lawyer about this.