When you’re involved in a crash, one of the first things you’ll do is seek medical attention. You need to make sure that you are receiving the care you need and starting on a pathway to recovery.
It’s common for car accidents to leave people with injuries, but depending on the situation, yours may be more severe than expected. In that case, you may not be sure if you want to start your claim right away, because you may not yet know how long it will take for you to recovery or the true cost of what you’ve just gone through.
If you get hurt, you need to make a claim as soon as possible
The first thing to know is that you should make a claim as soon as you can if you are hurt in a collision. You are limited by the statute of limitations, which means that you don’t have an unlimited amount of time to make a claim against someone or their insurance company.
In Missouri, you may have up to five years to make your claim. In Kansas, the personal injury statute of limitations is shorted to two years. Keeping that in mind, there are some other reasons that you shouldn’t wait to make your claim, too.
Making your claim early helps keep track of expenses and losses
When you make a claim earlier on in your case, it’s much easier to keep track of the expenses you have and the financial losses you may be dealing with. It also makes it simpler for you to track your paperwork, since you’ll submit new documents to your attorney regularly.
Starting your personal injury claim doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be resolved within that same timeframe. You may also not need to know the exact amount of money you’ll spend on your injuries or lose because of missing work. There are estimates and guidelines that can help your attorney negotiate for fair compensation from an insurance company and focus on getting you the most out of your claim. The most important step is just to get started, so it can begin to get processed.
