What Is the Process for Filing a Personal Injury Claim in Utah

If you’re filing a personal injury claim because someone else’s negligence has caused you an injury, it’s important to do everything correctly and on time. This is a legal issue, and all the legal hoops have to be jumped through. Your Salt Lake City personal injury lawyer can help.

What Is the Process for Filing a Personal Injury Claim in Utah?

Gather All Documents and Evidence

After an accident, you need to get medical help immediately. Obviously, the most important reason to do this is for your health, but your health is not the only reason to get medical help. You will need the records of your treatment to bring a claim for personal injury. You can’t actually bring a claim unless you can show that the accident caused you damages and what those are, and you cannot bring a claim for pain and suffering or other non-economic damages unless you can show a physical injury that you suffered. You also have to show that your injuries exceeded a certain amount before it becomes possible to bring a pain and suffering claim.

Your lawyer can help you make sure you have all the medical documentation to show what injury you have suffered, how it was treated, and all attached expenses. The key here is that you be able to show all these expenses are clearly related to the accident. You’ll also need to gather documentation of any other losses you have had. For lost wages from work, you will need things like pay stubs or bank account information, tax returns, and possibly your work contract. You may also have sustained property damage to a car or valuable mobile phone, for instance, and will need documentation to show all these losses.

If you have suffered non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering or mental anguish, your lawyer can help you understand what evidence can be used to show this. Valuable evidence here might include treatment records from a mental health professional, testimony from friends and family who can testify to how you have suffered since the accident, and possibly a personal journal in which you’ve been recording the impact of the injury on your life since it happened.

Get a Salt Lake City Lawyer

As soon as you feel well enough after the accident, you should connect with a local attorney familiar with Utah’s laws and the local Salt Lake City courts. Your attorney will look over your case and identify strengths and weaknesses. If necessary, your attorney can also do a deeper investigation into the accident itself to uncover all the facts to prove fault. Then, your lawyer will take on the burden of paperwork and ensuring that all filings are done correctly.

Once you have an attorney, you should refer all communication from the insurance company to them. Insurance companies may want to interview you multiple times after an accident, and sometimes the purpose for doing this is to ask questions in a way that will elicit an answer they can use against you. Your lawyer will protect you from this. Finally, your lawyer will help you to properly calculate all your damages and then competently negotiate for you or even take the case to court, if necessary.

Investigate the Accident (If Necessary)

As mentioned above, your lawyer may need to do an investigation on your behalf. The insurance company will investigate the circumstances of your accident, but it’s best not to rely just on their findings. Obviously, they have a strong incentive to find evidence that minimizes their liability in some way. This is especially important here in Utah, where we have a comparative fault rule that means if you are 49% or more responsible for an accident, you cannot claim damages at all. If you are anything less than 49% responsible but more than 0%, your damages will be reduced by the same percentage as your fault.

You can see why the insurance company will be motivated to put as much fault on you as possible. If they can find a way to claim that you are even 10% at fault, if your damages total $50,000, that’s $5,000 they don’t have to pay. And if they can nudge your fault over the line of 49%, they don’t have to pay anything at all. Your lawyer will protect you from these kinds of tactics and do a private investigation if needed to show what really happened.

Send a Demand Letter

Once your lawyer has finished investigating the accident, they will write a “demand letter” and send this to the insurance company. This letter should explain the facts of what happened, explain in detail what you’re asking for and what exactly your damages have been, and do so in the proper professional legal manner.

The insurance company will then respond by accepting your claim, making a counteroffer, or denying it. Most of the time, they reply first with a counteroffer, and that means you’ll enter a round of negotiations. Most of these cases are settled through negotiations of this type, but it is important to have an experienced lawyer negotiating on your behalf. A lawyer will level the playing field between you and the insurance company, and that’s important, because these insurance companies have a lot of experience in negotiations. They know that the average lay person does not, and they are not above taking advantage of your ignorance about the law or what you are owed.

File a Personal Injury Lawsuit

If the matter is not settled through negotiations, then you and your lawyer may have to take it to court. In Utah, you have four years in most cases to do this. In cases of wrongful death, you have two years, and if you’re suing a government entity, you only have a year. There are some exceptions to these rules, but you will need to speak with your lawyer about whether yours is one of the rare cases eligible for such an exception.

Once you file, several things might happen. In some cases, the insurance company will start negotiating in better faith. Occasionally, an insurance company discovers how serious you are only when you initiate a lawsuit, and that is enough to get their attention. If not, then you will usually enter a period known as “discovery.”

Discovery is a time for both sides to exchange information and demand it from the other party, and to file pleadings with the court. What you (and the other side) are trying to do is get as much information as possible so you know what the other side is going to argue and can more thoroughly evaluate your case. During discovery, the insurance company frequently comes back with new settlement offers.

Trial and Appeal

If you don’t reach a settlement, then the case will go to trial. If you win, you will be awarded damages, though they may not be the same as the amount you’re asking for. Trials always come with less certainty than settlements, but sometimes they are the only way forward. Once the trial is over, either side has the option to appeal if they can show that mistakes were made legally at some point during the first trial. Your lawyer can tell you more.