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As the victim of a careless accident, you have several options for pursuing the compensation you deserve for your financial losses and medical expenses. Understanding which option presents the best opportunity for you to achieve a favorable result can be confusing. This is especially true if you don’t have the help and advice of an experienced St. Louis personal injury attorney. The differences between a personal injury claim vs. a lawsuit are significant.
When you know the benefits and drawbacks of filing a personal injury claim versus a lawsuit, you can better prepare yourself for what’s to come.
Missouri law gives you several options for pursuing meaningful compensation for your injuries following an accident caused by a careless party.
Your first option is to file a personal injury claim. Missouri is a traditional fault-based insurance state, meaning following an accident with a careless party, you can file a claim with that party’s insurance provider seeking compensation for your injuries and other financial losses. For example, if you are hurt in a car accident caused by an at-fault driver, you file a personal injury claim with the other driver’s car insurance provider. The same is typically true if you are involved in an accident on a careless property owner’s premises.
The insurance company reviews the claim and evidence you provide, investigates the accident, and decides whether to pay you for your losses. If they accept your claim, they generally offer you a settlement. You can sign the agreement, waive your legal rights, and accept the offer. Alternatively, you can negotiate for more money. Accepting an initial settlement offer is seldom in your best interest because insurance companies are for-profit businesses. They want to settle quickly and for as little money as possible. A solid claim based on evidence and strong negotiation tactics are the keys to recovering the money you deserve from an insurance provider.
Your other option for pursuing compensation following an accident may be to file a personal injury lawsuit. Litigation means you take your case to a Missouri court, allowing a judge or jury to review the evidence and resolve your case. Depending on the circumstances of the accident, you may file a lawsuit against an at-fault party or an insurance company, especially if the company refuses to negotiate with you in good faith.
Filing a personal injury lawsuit may yield a higher payout. However, it also takes longer to recover compensation and may cause stress and frustration as your case moves through the Missouri legal system.
Filing a claim means working through the insurance system, while filing a lawsuit means going through the legal system. Several laws can impact your ability to file a personal injury lawsuit. You should be aware of these rules when deciding which option offers you the best chance at recovering the money you need.
Missouri law limits the time you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. Accident victims involved in car accidents, premises liability cases, dog bites, and product liability cases generally have five years from the accident date to file their case. Insurance companies know this. One tactic they may employ to get you to settle involves engaging in bad-faith negotiations to drag out the claim process. They understand that once the legal deadline for filing a lawsuit passes, you lose your leverage over them. This is because lawsuits filed after the deadline passes face dismissal by the court. The court won’t hear your case, and you may lose the ability to recover the compensation you deserve.
Missouri’s pure comparative negligence rule is another regulation that can affect personal injury lawsuits. This doctrine outlines the compensation an accident victim can recover via a personal injury lawsuit. It states that compensation awards diminish by the same percentage as the fault a victim bears for causing the accident. If a court finds an accident victim 10 percent responsible for causing an accident, their compensation decreases by 10 percent. Even if individuals are predominantly to blame, they can still pursue compensation for their financial losses under this rule.
A vital difference between lawsuits vs. claims is that the pure comparative negligence rule only binds court decisions. However, insurance companies can consider pure comparative negligence and how a court might rule on a case when assessing the value of a claim.
Filing a personal injury lawsuit means you can generally seek compensation for your economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are measurable losses such as medical expenses, lost wages, and property damage. Non-economic damages are subjective and include emotional distress or pain and suffering. Missouri generally does not cap or limit how much money you can recover from a personal injury lawsuit, unlike some other jurisdictions.
Filing a lawsuit means you may also be awarded punitive damages. The court can award punitive damages in rare cases where an at-fault party’s actions or behaviors were malicious or particularly heinous. Missouri law does cap punitive damages at $500,000 or five times the compensatory damages, whichever is greater. Punitive damages are only awarded in personal injury lawsuits and not via injury claims.
Our team of experienced attorneys can evaluate your situation and outline your legal options. Involving an attorney early in the process is in your best interest. This is because if insurance negotiations fail, your attorney will be prepared to file a lawsuit when necessary. Contact our law firm today at (314) 231-4100 and request a free consultation through our online form to find out more about your legal options for recovering meaningful compensation. Check out our notable case results to know why you should trust us with your case.