Checklist of Records to Gather After a Car Accident

If You Were Involved in a Car Accident Call Us Right Away

When you suffer a car accident, serious injuries and severe damage to your vehicle often follow. As a result, you will have medical bills filling up your mailbox, few if any paychecks in your hand, and likely be without transportation. Because of this, you will immediately file a claim with an insurance company, thinking this will solve your problems. Unfortunately, you may just be starting a whole new set of problems. Contrary to what you may think, the insurance company will not be in a hurry to help you out of your financial bind, and will probably do all it can to delay paying you compensation, if it agrees to pay you anything at all. To increase the chances your insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit will be successful, it is crucial you do two things. First, gather together various records pertaining to your accident. And most importantly, hire a Los Angeles personal injury attorney from Grey Law to handle your case.

Obtain the Police Report

Since police responded to the accident scene, always obtain the police report containing the details of your accident. This will be vital to proving your case, since it will contain statements from drivers and witnesses, whether or not traffic laws were violated, and the opinion of officers who worked the accident as to which driver or drivers were responsible for the accident. To get a copy of this report, contact the police department yourself or have your car accident lawyer do this for you.

Your Medical Records

If there is one thing insurance companies do after car accidents, it is to claim accident victims are not as seriously injured as they say they are following the accident. Since your case will likely be no different, always obtain copies of your medical records immediately after your accident. Since you may need to get records from several different places such as ambulance services, hospitals, pharmacies, physical therapists, and perhaps others, this may take only a few days or several weeks, so start on this as soon as possible. If you have questions about what to do after a car accident, contact your car wreck attorney who Los Angeles accident victims know well from Grey Law.

Proof of Income

When you are injured in a car accident and are forced to miss time from your job, your income will drop dramatically and quickly. Therefore, you will be seeking compensation for not only the income you have already lost, but also any future income that may be lost due to your injuries. However, the insurance company and judge will not simply take your word for it when it comes to how much you earn. Therefore, you will need to produce proof of your income, which can be done by gathering together prior paycheck stubs, bank records related to direct deposits, tax returns, or other documents you and your injury attorney deem to be necessary. Since this may have the single greatest impact on how much compensation you receive, take the time needed to get these documents ready to present to an insurance company or a court.

Vehicle Damage Estimates

Since your vehicle likely suffered extensive damage in the accident, you are entitled to have an insurance company pay for its repairs. But to make this happen, you will need to provide the company with verifiable estimates of how much it will cost to fix your vehicle. Since this is a big sticking point with many insurance companies, expect this to be an area where you will need to rely on your traffic accident lawyer in Los Angeles to make the insurance company do the right thing.

Proof of Vehicle Value

Along with damage estimates, you will also need to have proof of vehicle value at the time of the accident. If you happened to have an older model vehicle at the time of your accident, the insurance company may hesitate to pay for repairs. Since the insurance policy pertaining to your vehicle has language that may be hard to understand and plenty of fine print as well, let your Los Angeles car accident settlement lawyer at Grey Law look over your policy and advise you on what to do next.

Your Car Accident Diary

Although not considered to be an official document required by an insurance company or the courts, you should always try to keep a diary or journal related to your car accident for several months following the accident. While you may not think a court or insurance company would put any credence into what is contained in your journal, think again. Since your entries will detail not only the extent of your injuries but also how the accident has impacted your life on a daily basis, it can have quite an effect on swaying a judge or jury. Along with this, your car accident lawyer can use it to effectively shame an insurance company into doing the right thing during settlement negotiations, ensuring you receive the financial compensation you and your car accident injury attorney from Grey Law know you need and deserve.

Questions for Your Attorney

Due to the probability that you have never had to worry about gaining compensation from insurance companies or been involved in the filing of a personal injury lawsuit, it is always recommended that you also compile a list of questions to ask your lawyer at your initial consultation. From asking how you should deal with insurance companies regarding settlements to finding out what you should or should not say or do while your case is playing out, getting answers to these and other questions can be the difference between winning or losing your case.

Since it is never a good idea to handle negotiations with insurance companies on your own in these situations, schedule a consultation at your earliest convenience with an accident lawyer in Los Angeles from Grey Law. Once you do, you will have taken the first step to gaining compensation for your accident.