Suffering from a personal injury can be a very challenging experience. Those that have suffered an injury could find that their medical bills will add up quickly, they may no longer be able to work or earn an income and their quality of life will be affected. Due to this, it is natural to file a claim against another party if their negligence or mistake led to your accident and injury. If you are going to file a personal injury claim in Washington, there are several important parts of the process that you need to understand.

Time to File a Claim

A personal injury claim can take some time to file. Normally, you will want to make sure that you fully understand your injuries and what your total related expenses could be. This will ensure that you are able to file a full claim that covers all of your costs. However, you do not want to wait too long. In the state of Washington, you generally will only have three years to file a personal injury claim. If you do not file it in this time, the statute of limitations is up and you could not take the other party to court.

Determination fo Damages

A big part of any personal injury claim is to determine what your true costs and damages are. An attorney will work hard to determine what your full costs are, which can include medical bills, future therapy costs, lost wages and even pain and suffering. This claim will likely be contested by the other party and ultimately would need to be reviewed in the courtroom.

Pure Comparative Negligence

In Washington, the court of law uses a concept called Pure Comparative Negligence. During a court proceeding, the court will work to determine how much you are owed from your claim. However, they will also determine if you were partially at fault in the case. It is very common for the plaintiff to be assigned a small percentage of the blame in an accident. If this occurs in your case, your total reward will be reduced by the amount of your assigned blame.