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When You Can Handle Your Own Personal Injury Claim

It's often smart to handle your own injury insurance claim.

With basic information about how the accident claims process works, a bit of organization and a little patience, you may be able to handle your own personal injury claim without a lawyer -- and without your insurance company's unfairly denying or reducing your compensation. In fact, armed with the proper information, you can often get more compensation for your injury if you handle it yourself, because you won't have to pay costly lawyer's fees.

Types of claims you can often handle on your own include those involving:

• automobile, cycle, or pedestrian accidents
• slip or trip and fall accidents
• home accidents, and
• accidents with defective products.

Of course, there are times when a lawyer's services can be helpful or even necessary, especially in situations involving severe or permanently disabling injuries and certain types of complicated accidents, such as those involving medical malpractice or toxic exposure.  But the four following reasons indicate that, in many cases, you can represent yourself:

1. The Claims Process Is Simple

Despite what the insurance industry and some lawyers would like you to think, settling an injury claim with an insurance company is usually quite simple. Most claims involve no more than a few short letters and phone calls with an insurance adjuster who has no legal training, so you don't need to know technical language or complex legal rules. In fact, your right to be compensated often depends on nothing more than common-sense observations of who was careful and who wasn't.

2. The Compensation System Is Structured

The amount of fair compensation in any given case does not come out of a crystal ball that only lawyers and insurance companies know how to read. Rather, a number of simple factors -- type of accident, injuries, medical costs -- go into figuring how much any claim is worth. The amount an insurance company will be willing to pay usually falls into a fairly narrow range, whether or not a lawyer handles your claim for you.

3. You Know Your Claim Best

You know better than anyone else -- insurance adjuster or attorney -- how your accident happened. You were there; they weren't. And you know best what injuries you suffered and what your physical condition and other circumstances have been since. Usually, these are the most important things to understand when settling an injury claim.

4. You Can Save Money on Legal Fees

Except in serious or complicated cases, a lawyer is usually able to negotiate for you only an extra 10% to 25% above what you can obtain for yourself, once you understand the claims process. But a lawyer will take 33% to 40% of your recovery as a fee, and in addition charge you for "costs" -- charges for administrative services such as making copies and holding conference calls, plus any court filing fees. Subtract the lawyer's fees and costs from the extra amount of the settlement a lawyer might get, and you'll see how much better you can do on your own.