By When do you hire a car accident lawyer for property damage claim? What do you need to do before moving on? And is there a way a personal injury lawyer can save you from being ripped off by corrupt insurance companies?
All these we will try to answer in the course of this article.
Damage to your property can happen in many difference ways. Your valuable car can get damaged in a terrible car accident while in motion or a falling tress might fall on top of it while it’s parked somewhere.
Related: How a Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help You Get Your Car Insurance Claim in California
Or it might even be a stray football from young street footballers hit your windscreen and damaging it beyond repair.
No matter how it happens, the truth is that it may be difficult to get compensated for your damaged property. Most times, insurance may not cover everything. And even when it did, most corrupt car insurance companies may not want to pay claims.
But you know, what?
You can hire a car accident lawyer near you to file a property damage claim to your insurance company.
He or she will initiate a car accident property damage settlement and follow it up until it’s paid in full.
But the deal is that you must pay them their fees upfront even before they can take up your case.
What is a Property Damage Claim?
A property damage claim is a report or evidence that you submit to an insurance company in the event that your property has been damaged.
Property damage claims come in many shapes and sizes, and different states in the United States have different rules regarding how and when to file. For instance in California, you can sue for injuries from a car accident within six months of the accident.
Related: How to Find the Best Auto Insurance Company Even as a Newbie
If your vehicle is hit by another vehicle while parked, or if a vehicle slides off road and damages your mailbox, lawn, home, or other property, you can file a property damage claim.
It’s one thing to say that a person is liable for the property damage caused by his or her negligence. But proving it can be quite another. There are four elements to a standard negligence claim:
- Duty: The defendant owed you a legal duty to use reasonable care under the circumstances;
- Breach: The defendant breached that legal duty by acting or failing to act in a certain way;
- Causation: It was the defendant’s breach that actually caused the damage to your property; and
- Damages: Your property was damaged as a result of the defendant’s actions.
For you to be fully compensated for the damage to your property, your property damage lawyer will need to be able to prove all four elements. And provide an accurate estimate of the amount of damage your property sustained.
