After a Car Accident
A question we often see is ‘should I get an attorney after a car accident?’ It would be ill-advised to attempt to negotiate a car accident settlement in Ontario without legal representation. Successful, or, better put, a fair settlement is a lot more likely with an auto accident injury attorney by your side. If you have been hurt in a car accident, your focus should be on your recovery but also on finding good legal representation to guide you through what could be a complex court case.
Successful car accident settlement is rarely achieved quickly. It consists of several parts, which must all be pursued in a timely fashion. The case has to go through certain stages before it is ready to be settled. Knowing when to settle is just as important as knowing what to claim.
Applying for Car Accident Claim
The first ingredient to successful settlement is applying for accident benefits to your own car insurance company. Failure to pursue Accident Benefits will prevent you from claiming a variety of benefits that you are entitled to under Ontario law thus depriving you of significant compensation.
At a certain stage, you will have the option of trying to settle your accident benefits with your car insurance company on a lump sum basis. Generally speaking, when to “cash-out” should be driven by your prognosis. You want to have a good idea about how your injuries will progress in the future and what kind of losses they will attract before “cashing out”. More serious injuries and resulting impairments attract better settlements. If you develop impairments that are serious enough to be qualified as “catastrophic” under Ontario law, you will have access to more funding, and it will likely lead to a much better lump sum cash settlement with your car insurance company at the end.
Filing a Tort Claim
Another option in getting car accident compensation in Ontario is called Tort. In simple terms, under this process, you have a right to claim damages from a person that caused the car accident. While some claims do overlap, Tort is separate from accident benefits claims reviewed above. It normally starts with you putting a person at fault for the accident on notice.
Their car insurance company will then take over and will start processing your Tort claim. While you can settle with the insurance adjuster at that point, it would only make sense if your injuries, damages, and losses have already crystallized (which is almost never the case) so as to allow you to make a proper demand and to achieve a fair car accident cash settlement. A more common scenario in Tort context involves a court lawsuit, which will then have to go through certain stages until it is ready to be settled.
Negotiate a Car Accident Settlement in Ontario
Successful settlements in accident benefits and Tort context require solid medical evidence from your treating doctors and health practitioners as well as independent expert doctors. The more supportive the doctors are of your disability, the more successful your settlement negotiation will likely be. Opinion evidence from expert doctors is almost always part of a successful settlement negotiation.
To successfully negotiate a car accident settlement in Ontario, you require knowledge and expertise that only comes with experienced legal advice of an Ontario injury lawyer.
