How to Best Protect Your Bodily Injury Claim

A bodily injury claim happens when you are injured and the other party involved in the incident was at fault. In other words the other person was negligent and he caused the accident and due to the accident, you got hurt. In this case, you will be filing a bodily injury claim. This can be auto related, but bodily injuries extend to anything where you got hurt, e.g. at work, due to medical malpractice etc. The rest of this article will consider the most frequent case, i.e. that of auto related accidents.

Bodily Injury Coverage

A bodily injury insurance coverage is called a liability coverage which will cover the liabilities of the person who owns the insurance policy. This coverage is usually one of the mandatory types of coverage in almost all of the states in the US. This is made so by the Government to give protection to the people who are on the unfortunate receiving end of an accident and gives assurance to everyone who is involved with such an incident.

On the side of the liable party, it assures him that the first few thousand dollars will be covered by his policy depending on the liability limit he has purchased. You need to know that if the other person’s liability coverage is not enough to cover you medical bills, then he may need to pay for the remaining amount of the expenses.

Filing a Bodily Injury Claim

If you do get involved in an accident, you need to know the basic procedures on how to go about filing a claim against the other person’s bodily injury coverage in the event that the other person is the one liable for the incident. People who are responsible enough to own every situation they are in would actually exchange cards whenever they are involved with an auto accident assuming that they are still capable of doing so.

Always make sure the police gets involved when there is an accident, even if it is only minor. This guarantees that a proper report gets written and all the relevant details get noted. Because with this, you need to take all the necessary information you can from the liable party such as his full name, his auto insurance company, his employer, and his contact details. You may also need the phone number of his insurance provider so that you can also notify them about the incident. Your own auto insurance provider should also be notified so that they may be able to give you support in filing for the claim against the other person.

Doctor's Opinion of Injuries

If you have injuries that need to be treated, you need to go to the emergency room of a hospital right after the accident. If your own auto policy carries personal injury protection coverage that may take care of your medical bills first depending on the rules that governs your state on which coverage will be consumed first either your personal injury or the other person’s bodily injury coverage. It is best then that you are familiar with the state rules that govern the insurance coverage in your location.

Disclosure of Bodily Injuries

It is important that you disclose all important information you have with the emergency room doctor especially with regard to the symptoms you have. If you have a faint ache or pain somewhere mention it. You can't tell too much. The reason is that this will all be recorded and the insurance adjuster will review it. You do not want the adjuster to try to diminish the value of your injury just because you were not able to provide necessary information on the type of injury or pain you had when you visited the ER. Or when that faint pain in your neck develops into a whiplash later.

Treatment of Bodily Injury

If you have a treatment schedule, you should stick to it. Insurance adjusters are like hawks watching your every move, therefore they would know if you have been skipping dates and if you are not doing everything in your power to get better. This will then give them a reason to reduce the value of your bodily injury claim since they can justify the gaps in treatment as an indication that the injury was not very significant. They would then tell you that if you were really in pain then you should have gone to your doctor and underwent the treatment that was scheduled for you.

Take note of these facts and tips in doing a bodily injury claim. Through this, you can make sure that the claims experience would be convenient and not an added burden on your mind and body.