How long to file bodily injury claim

Your insurance has an additional 15 days to accept or deny your claim and five days after approval to pay. Sometimes your insurance company can extend this deadline by 45 days if it notifies you with a reason. Filing your claim immediately increases the likelihood that you receive payment earlier and the likelihood that you receive adequate damages. Your damages should cover your medical care, lost wages, repair or replacement of property, and pain and suffering.

Regular care can produce multiple reports explaining your medical needs. Reports explaining your present and future medical needs are important evidence to prove your economic damages at trial. These reports are also useful in settlement negotiations. The longer you wait to file a claim, the higher the likelihood that you could suffer a subsequent, unrelated injury. This makes your damages harder to deny. Browse All Personal Injury Topics ».

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When you sustain an injury, you have a limited amount of time to file a legal claim against the responsible parties. Florida law establishes the statute of limitations that controls how long you have to make your injury claim. If your statute of limitations is four years, for example, the time period begins when you have your accident and expires four years after your accident anniversary.

If you allow this deadline to pass without taking action, you generally lose your right to recover damages. When your injury involves negligence, such as in an auto accident or a slip and fall occurrence, you generally have four years from your injury date to either settle or sue in Florida. For a medical malpractice victim, the statute of limitations is two years.

Exceptions and conditions can modify the basic statute of limitations. Other circumstances stay the expiration. A stay is a condition or circumstance that prevents the statute of limitations from running for a period designated by Florida law. When the injured plaintiff is a minor, the deadlines become even more complicated. In a perfect world, the person who causes your injury contacts their liability carrier as soon as possible. The insurance company quickly investigates the accident and assesses liability.

There's No Universal Deadline for Filing a Car Insurance Claim The precise deadline—or, more accurately, the wording pertaining to when a claim must be filed—will vary depending on your particular car insurance policy. Did the Delay "Prejudice" Your Claim? That's because: accident evidence will be easier to gather, and investigation will be more effective witness memories will be fresh the details of the accident and the impact of your injuries will be clear in your mind, and the sooner you get the claim process started, the sooner you receive a settlement.

Next Steps If You've Delayed the Car Insurance Claim Process Especially if you've delayed filing a car insurance claim after an accident that caused you significant injuries, it might make sense to discuss your situation with a skilled legal professional.

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