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When you are in an accident, you might feel as if the circumstances under which it occurred are very cut and dry. Logically, you would think the next step is to file a claim and receive compensation. In some instances, this is exactly what happens. However, there are some cases in which things do not go according to plans. When your Vancouver personal injury attorney files a claim, there is a chance that the responsible party may deny responsibility and refuse to pay. If this happens, your lawyer may file a lawsuit. If he does, you can expect the insurance company to come prepared with a defense. One defense that the insurance company may use in response to the lawsuit by your Vancouver personal injury attorney is the statute of limitations. There are very firm time restrictions in place for personal injury cases. Your attorney will be very wary of those times when working your case and take the necessary steps to ensure that you do not run into this problem. If you waited to contact an attorney so that you could move forward with your case and the statute of limitations have expired, your attorney will have to review your case to determine if you qualify for an exception to the law. Some accidents have a clearly identifiable responsible party. If there is some gray area as to who was the party at fault, the insurance company may argue that its client is not liable or only partially liable. If this happens, your Vancouver personal injury attorney will have to either prove that the other person was solely responsible or show that you were partially responsible but you should still receive compensation. Oftentimes, the amount that you would receive in the case would be reduced by the percentage of the blame that you share. Even though you may be the victim in the accident, you have certain responsibilities. One of those is to mitigate the damages from the accident. For instance, if you were hurt in the accident, it is your responsibility to get medical treatment right away. If you waited for weeks and then went to get treatment, there is a chance that your medical condition might be worse than it was at first. This could result in higher medical bills. The insurance company could claim that because you did not do what you could to get better in a reasonable amount of time, it is not liable for damages beyond a certain period. If you were involved in an activity that came with some sort of risk of injury, the insurance company could claim that you were aware of the risk and any injuries you suffered were to be expected. That expectation could potentially exclude the responsible party from liability. If this is the case, your Vancouver personal injury attorney would have to prove that there was an assumption of risk but your accident falls out of it. For instance, if you were participating in a sporting event, but you suffered an injury that was not directly related to the sport such as a staff member accidentally hit you with an object in the head, that is not part of the assumption of risk. If there were no witnesses to the accident and no definitive proof, there is a good chance that the insurance company will simply state that you have failed to prove liability. Your Vancouver personal injury attorney will have to take extra measures to prove your case such as hiring someone to recreate the accident and conferring with experts. Your lawyer may also have to rely on tripping up the defendant during his testimony in court.
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