One of the few weak points of living in a no fault state is if you're ever injured in a car accident, your insurance is probably not enough to cover all of your current medical bills. This is because your no fault car insurance policy is only to pay for your medical bills up to your policy limits. If you would like more cash, you'll have to start a personal injury claim.
Launching Your Personal Injury Claim
Several of these no fault state's have very specific requirements before you can begin the process of your personal injury claims. For example, some states will only let you file an injury claim if your injuries are considered "severe". These states have what is often known as an "injury threshold". Which means that if your specific injury really doesn't fall within the criteria of just what the state views as "serious", you will find yourself unable to begin a personal injury claim and get back money for your medical bills.
Exactly What is Considered as a "Serious" Injury?
Each individual no fault state has a slightly different meaning of what is looked at as a "severe" injury. Though, there are certain kinds of injuries that commonly come under the "serious" category. For example:
Bone fractures (ex: an individual has a cracked or chipped bone in your arm or leg )
Permanent Injuries (ex: damages to one's neck, spine or head).
Disabling injuries: (ex: a back injury that gravely limits your movement )
Permanent disfigurement: (ex visible scars, broken nose, burn marks)
How to Demonstrate Your Injuries are "Severe"
To make sure you show that your injuries are significant, you must understand how your specific no fault state has identified a severe injury. Your no fault state usually has a description of which groups of injuries it considers severe and serious. You need to look at the description for your specific state. Since each state has a slightly different meaning of a severe injury, your injuries could very well be considered severe in one state and not in another.
After you've reviewed the description, you'll be able to see whether your injuries meet those set of guidelines. Since the descriptions could in fact be interpreted in several ways, you should try to create an argument that supports your claim. By doing this you can begin your car insurance claim.
Whether your interpretation is valid or invalid can be a question of negotiation with the auto insurance company. That is why it is important that you understand the seriousness of your injuries and how to negotiate
car accident claims.
If your injuries have crossed the "injury threshold" you can then begin on understanding how to calculate your
personal injury settlements
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