It’s highly unlikely that a friend or family member would ever intentionally cause you harm, but the fact of the matter is that oftentimes our loved ones play a role in our injuries. If you step on a nail on a friend’s property or you’re a passenger being driven by your cousin who ends up in a fender bender, you may be injured and in need of compensation. In these scenarios, you may need to confront the reality that you’ll be filing a claim against a friend or family member.
As you can imagine, this can be a bit of an uncomfortable process, but that doesn’t mean you should suffer because of it. In today’s blog, we explain how you should navigate the process of collecting compensation from a friend or family member who played a role in your personal injuries.
When You’re Injured By A Friend Or Family Member
For the sake of this blog, let’s assume that you were unintentionally or indirectly injured by a friend or family member. If the injury was intentional, you’d likely have fewer qualms about filing an injury claim, and they won’t exactly be shocked when you do so. For the sake of this blog, we’re going to assume the injuries were unintentional or indirect.
It’s not uncommon to feel conflicted in this scenario. You don’t want to sue your friend or family and grossly affect their financial situation, but at the same time, you shouldn’t have to be the one to deal with the financial consequences of an accident. If you now face medical bills or can’t work for a while, you and your family need to get the financial compensation you deserve. When thinking about this, remember that the vast majority of the time, you’ll be seeking compensation not from your loved one, but their insurance provider.
This is exactly why we pay for homeowner’s insurance or an automobile insurance policy, so that our families, our friends and complete strangers have an opportunity to collect financial compensation should the unexpected occur. Don’t view it as a move against your friend or family member’s finances, see it as a claim against an insurance policy that they pay for. They have paid for certain protections, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for collecting compensation from the protective services they regularly pay for. You would want a loved one to collect from your insurance provider if the shoe was on the other foot, so don’t feel guilty about doing the same.
To make this process much easier, our advice is to completely outsource the process to an injury lawyer. This way it’s easier for emotions to remain under control because you are working through a third party. You may provide some information to your lawyer or have to give a brief statement to an insurance agent, but you’re not going to be personally fighting it out in court with a friend or family member.
We’ll develop the case, negotiate strongly on your behalf and let you sit on the sidelines so that you can be as uninvolved in the process as you’d like. People enjoy letting a lawyer work on their behalf, but this statement tends to ring even truer if you happen to be filing a claim against a friend or family member.
We get it. Filing an injury claim against a friend or family isn’t something you look forward to doing, but it’s necessary after an unexpected accident leaves you facing an uncertain financial future. To put your mind and your financial prospects at ease, let a professional take over and handle the process for you. We’ve done it for countless clients in the past, and we look forward to taking this headache off your hands should you happen to find yourself in this situation.
For more information, about winning a personal injury lawsuit if you are injured on someone else’s property or while someone else is behind the wheel, pick up the phone and call Dean and the team at Margolis Law Firm today at (952) 230-2700.
