NEGLIGENCE

Injury claims are usually based on the law of negligence. Negligence is the failure to exercise ordinary care. It is doing some act that a reasonably careful person would not do under the same or similar circumstances; or the failure to do something that a reasonably careful person would have done under the same or similar circumstances. When negligence is the proximate cause of an injury, a claim for damages exists. In Washington the judge or the jury determines the degree of negligence between the parties. Washington is a "pure comparative fault" state. In other words, if each party is 50% at fault, each owes 50% of the other party's damages. After an accident, the other party's insurance company will assign an adjuster who will look for evidence to shift the blame away from their insured and onto you. Delay can undermine the ability to prove who was really at fault.  

DAMAGES

Generally two types of damages arise from an injury claim: Economic Damages; sometimes referred to as special damages, and Non-Economic Damages sometimes referred to as general damages. The party making the claim is responsible for proving their damages.  Likewise the responding party is responsible for proving any defense to those damages.

Economic damages are "objectively verifiable monetary losses", such as medical expenses and loss of earnings as well as others.

Non-economic damages are "subjective non-monetary losses", such as pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, as well as others.

In an injury case, the other insurance company will look for evidence that your medical treatment, pain, disability and wage loss were not caused by the accident or are exaggerated by you. Failure to get medical treatment soon after the accident will be viewed as evidence that there were no injuries or that the injuries found must have happened after the accident. Prompt medical treatment may reduce the risk of a permanent condition developing and document the injuries' existence and relationship to the accident.

Once the amount of damages necessary to reasonably and fairly compensate a party is determined, the amount is reduced by that party's percentage of negligence. Even if the other party admits fault, you still must prove damages. In many cases experts are needed to prove the amount of damages you are entitled to.

INSURANCE

While your insurance company may initially pay some or all of your medical bills, they will not pursue your claim for damages.  In fact, subrogation claims, PIP disputes or UIM coverage may make your own insurance company your opponent.