How to Handle Your Own Arizona Personal Injury Claim

How Do You Negotiate a Settlement

"Do I need to hire an Arizona injury lawyer?" This is a question that people who are injured need to ask themselves. This is a legitimate question that injury victims should ask themselves because not all personal injury claims in Arizona require a lawyer. Many times people think that they can settle their own injury case without even talking to an attorney, but this is a mistake. You should always consult an attorney just to make sure you are not making a major mistake in your claim. There is no fee to talk an experienced lawyer. The best Arizona personal injury lawyers will not charge a fee and they will handle your claim on a contingency fee basis. The top injury lawyers will also tell you whether or not you need a lawyer. Not all injury cases need a lawyer.

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Tip on Negotiating Your Own Arizona Personal Injury Claim

Having said that, we know some people are not going to want to a call an injury attorney until the adjustor gives them a ridiculous offer. If you do decide to proceed with the negotiations of your own personal injury claim, the following is advice that we would give you.

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What You Should Know About Settling Your Own Personal Injury Claim

• Take pictures
• Do not sign any documents for the insurance company to get copies of your medical records
• Get copies of your own medical records
• Watch out to make sure if any medical liens are filed on your injury claim
• If you have Medicare you will need to get a conditional lien amount and a final lien amount before settling with the insurance company
• Make sure to get the medical treatment that you need before settling (this is a general rule as some cases do merit attempting settlement right away)
• Before signing any release paperwork make sure that you have completed all your medical treatment
• Do not release any individual on the release unless you are prepared to have your case finished completely
• Make sure the providers bill your health insurance company
• If you have a permanent injury, you will want to get a permanent impairment rating from your doctor or doctor who has experience in giving permanent impairment ratings
• Do not give a recorded statement to the insurance company
• Make sure you know the statute of limitations on your claim

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Why Shouldn't I Give a Recorded Statement on my Arizona Injury Claim?

If an insurance company asks you to give a recorded statement on an injury claim in Arizona, ask yourself why. If the insurance company knows that their insured is at fault then why would they need you to give a recorded statement. Generally speaking, an insurance company is only going to ask for a recorded statement when they want to try to seek information about liability or your injuries. There is no reason that the insurance company needs to have a recorded statement from the innocent injured victim. The only reason the insurance adjustor is going to want this information is to either now deny your claim based on liability or to later deny your personal injury claim. You may not see this as the adjustor may be sweet as pie, but remember this is the job of the adjustor. It is not whether or not the adjustor is nice or treating you right, the adjustor still has a job to do and the adjustor's job is not to give you the best settlement possible. The adjustor's job is to limit the insurance company's exposure to all injury claims as much as possible. Therefore, do not fall for this trap of giving a recorded statement. Now, we have had many clients give recorded statements and we were still able to obtain a settlement of policy limits, but that being said, giving a recorded statement is not something we advice any claimant to do when they are trying to settle their own claim.

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Learn the 13 Biggest Mistakes That Can Destroy An Arizona Personal Injury Claim

To help people further understand what mistakes can be made on a personal injury claim in injury, we have written a book which will take you step by step through the 13 biggest mistakes that can destroy an accident claim. As experienced personal injury lawyers, we thought it best if we helped to educate people on how to handle their own personal injury claim. If you truly want to handle your own claim, although the above advice is solid advice, we obviously did not go into great detail about what mistakes you can make when handling your own claim. Our book on the other hand is a 165 page book and we give it our absolutely free to injured victims in Arizona. The book is out there are a public service so that people will have a better understanding of what to do and what not to do when handling their own claim. Click here to get a copy of our book.

If you would like to speak to an experienced injury lawyer, call The Husband & Wife Law Team at (602) 457-6222. We will not pressure you into hiring an attorney. We will just answer your questions. We have told many people that they do not need our office to help them and guided them in the right direction. Not all cases need attorneys as we said above, but all injury victims would be best off to make sure they consult an attorney to make sure that they are doing the right thing in handling their injury claim. If you do not want to speak to us just order a copy of the Arizona Injury Book and you will receive your free copy within a couple of days. You can even ask for a copy to be emailed to you. It is absolutely free, and again, this is just a public service for us to educate injured victims in Arizona.

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