Guide to settling your own car insurance claim.

Guide to settling your own car insurance claim.
You have just been involved in a car accident where you feel you were not at fault. Your car has been seriously damaged and you are hurt. The last thing you need is to allow unscrupulous insurance companies to walk all over you. You need a plan to get fair compensation for your car, your injuries, loss of income and other inconveniences caused by an incident that was not your fault. The difference between just compensation and not being able to pay for your medical bills is to a large extent in your own very hands. The decisions you make will decide the outcome to a large degree.
Get organized.
If like me you are not exactly an order freak and believe in organized chaos as a perfectly good life philosophy, congratulations, but you are going to have to pretend to be an anal retentive, manic compulsive, square head for a little time. Annoying as it might be to admit, order does have its place (pun intended) in the science of getting what you deserve from tight fisted insurance companies.
By getting organized we do not mean taking your car for wash and throwing those Mars bar wrappers in the back seat. We are talking paperwork. You need to know the facts and figures of the accident: Your insurance details, the insurance details of all the other parties involved. The date, address of the scene of the accident. The ID of the police officers and any witness you might need to call. You need a report from the police officer in charge of your case. You need diagrams of the accident, any traffic signs that are relevant to the accident and the approximate speeds of the cars involved.
You should open your own file for the accident and keep copies of everything. Send all the documentation you have with your car insurance claim.
Be firm, be polite.
There is no point demonizing insurance companies, they are just businesses trying to make a buck, well, a lot of bucks. This means they will always try and take as much as they can in premiums and pay out as little as they can in compensation for damages and injuries. That is just how it is. This means you need to wake up, look alive and show them you mean business. They are not going to walk all over you. You know your rights, what you deserve and you are going to make sure you get it. This might seem irrelevant, but it isn’t it, you need to make a display of confidence and make it clear you know what you want and how to get it. If you act as a push-over you will be one.
Be ready to negotiate with your insurance or the other driver’s insurance adjusters. Don’t be scared of him, he is just another human trying to do his job. Be polite to him, never lose your nerve, but be firm. If you are out of your depth and things get difficult, consult an insurance lawyer to fight for your case.