5 Requirements You Need to Successfully File a Personal Injury Claim

Have you recently suffered a severe injury that’s left you hospitalized and unable to report to work? If so, then you may want to file a personal injury claim.

A personal injury claim is a legal claim against a party, organization, or individual responsible for the accident. If you manage to file your personal injury claim successfully and the court rules in your favor, then you may be awarded compensation that should help you get back on your feet and financially recover from the incident.

With that said, you can’t simply file your personal injury claim and expect the legal system to immediately reward you with compensation. You need to do some extra work to prove to the court that the responsible party truly is culpable in your getting injured. This work involves collecting several requirements to submit alongside your claim, which we’ve listed below.

You may also want to seek the services of a lawyer who specializes in personal injury claims, as their knowledge and expertise will help prove your case, as well as facilitate communications with the other party in case they decide to settle.

Victim’s statement

Your account of the accident is the first and the most critical requirement on this list. This statement should include your most accurate retelling of the events as it unfolded. Try to be as detailed as you can and leave nothing out. Moreover, you should make sure to document everything about your injury—from the pain, suffering, and distress that it’s caused you, as well as how it’s reduced your ability to go about your daily business. Noting down how it has negatively impacted your life is advisable as well.

Police reports

Was your accident big or visible enough that the police were involved? If so, then you may want to take a trip down to the station and get a copy of the police report related to your accident. Police reports are considered public record once completed and submitted into the system, which means anyone can ask for them. There may also be a detailed accident reconstruction report made by a specific division within the police department who responded to the incident. This can also help flesh out your case further.

Witness reports and statements

This particular requirement concerns the reports or formal statements of individuals who were present when the accident took place. This requirement can be completed by multiple sources—from the police or law enforcement officers who responded to the accident, the people involved, or any other individual who can provide any relevant, first-hand information about the event itself. Try to collect as many of these as you can or ask the help of your attorney if you need to.

Medical reports and records

All medical paperwork related to your injury should be collected and considered as vital evidence for your personal injury claim. This includes the following:

• Emergency room records
• Doctor care records
• Autopsy reports
• Diagnostic test results and treatment reports
• Rehabilitation reports

Gather as much of these as you need, as this particular requirement will help to prove the existence of the injury you suffered, as well as how much it affected your overall health. It also helps contextualize the kind of costs and expense you had to deal with in getting treated for your injury. This will also prove the income opportunities that were lost due to lengthy hospital stays and treatment procedures.

Video and photographic evidence

This requirement involves video and photographs taken before, during, and after the incident that caused your injury. If the accident took place in a public area or establishment, you can rely upon CCTV cameras to have captured the event. Collecting the video would then be a simple matter of contacting the organization or establishment who owns the cameras and putting in a request for it.

If the event took place somewhere secluded, then try to have video evidence captured of the aftermath, either with your camera or through someone else’s help. Photographs of your fresh injury, as well as of the damage done to your vehicle or property—if applicable—also count towards fulfilling this requirement.

Collect as much evidence as you can

Personal injury claims are typically unique due to the circumstances involved. Depending on the kind of injury you received, you may need to fulfill more requirements than what we mentioned here. However, the five listed above are essential to the success in the filing of any personal injury claim, and you should strive to collect as much of them as possible.

You should also hire the services of a reliable personal injury claims lawyer such as Viviene Sandhu from Clifford Law Services. Get in touch with her through the Viviene Sandhu Business Profile and employ her expertise and knowledge to help you get the just compensation you need.