Injury Lawyers Free Consultation Checklist
Being involved in a motor vehicle accident can be a traumatic and stressful event. We expect that you have many questions about your recovery and your injury claim. KMSC believes that every injured person should have access to all the information they need before making any decisions about their future wellbeing. Our free consultation gives you the opportunity to weigh your options and better understand what kind of compensation you can expect.
Before your initial consultation, our administrative team may ask you some clarifying questions in order to get a clear understanding of the accident and your injuries. These questions may include:
- Date of your accident
- Location of your accident
- If you have access to the police report
- What treatments you’ve undergone in relation to the accident
- What injuries you have suffered as a result of the accident
- Whether you were employed at the time of the accident, and if so whether your employment has been affected by the accident and your injuries
At your consultation, we will further discuss your claim and explain what is involved in making it successful. Your consultation gives you the opportunity to not only evaluate our injury law team, but also ask some of the questions you probably have about the claim process.
Our checklist gives you an idea of what to expect at this appointment, but also what you can bring to get the best value from the free consultation. We understand that after you’ve been in an accident, you may not have the strength or ability to prepare for the appointment. Your comfort and recovery are the most important things. If you have a family member or friend that can help, we encourage you to ask them to join you.
Documents
When meeting with an injury lawyer, there are certain documents that would be helpful to bring to your first consultation. Things like:
- Your vehicle insurance papers
- Your driver’s license
- Your Alberta Health Care number
- Collision report form for the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) – this may be something the RCMP provided at the time of the accident or shortly afterwards
- Hospital report
- Ambulance report
- Names and contact information of any witnesses and witness statements
- All letters received from insurance companies (including your own)
- Copies of all emails and other correspondence between yourself and other parties (including insurance adjusters, witnesses or the other driver)
- Name of your doctor and any doctor’s notes provided to you
- Names of any other treatment providers that you have attended with in relation to the accident (e.g., physiotherapist, chiropractor, registered massage therapist)
- List of prescriptions
- Pictures or videos of vehicle damage or other evidence
- The name of the body shop you select to repair your vehicle damage
- Details of any extended medical benefit and disability plans you can access
- Your SIN
- A recent payslip from your employer, if you are off work.
If you don’t have access to all of this information, don’t worry. When you work with KMSC’s Injury Law Team we not only handle the insurance company, but we’ll also gather evidence and obtain medical reports that will help support your case.
Details About Your Accident
For us to better understand your claim, we’ll have to ask you questions about your claim. Before meeting with one of our personal injury lawyers, you might find it helpful to prepare a short summary about what happened. You may want to include details like:
- How the motor vehicle accident occurred
- If there is any witness information
- Whether the party at fault was charged with a traffic offense
- What medical treatment have you undergone, where and how have you paid for this
- Do you have any private insurance policies that pay for treatment
- Your pain and injuries (physical and/or psychological)
- Any out-of-pocket expenses incurred for medical treatment or other treatments
- Employment and disability insurance information
- If you are injured and can’t work, how long you’ve been off work
- How your injuries affect your day-to-day living activities
Be as specific as possible with the information you provide, including dates, times, contacts, and other information. Following your consultation, this will help us with opening your file and investigating the accident and your injuries further. This further investigation may include obtaining witness statements, hiring private investigators to gather such statements, engaging accident reconstruction engineers to assess the accident if liability, impact severity, or accident details are unknown or are in dispute, and gathering your medical and treatment records from your care providers.
Questions for the KMSC Injury Law Team
Before attending your consultation, you may want to prepare a list of questions that you’d like one of our experienced injury lawyers to answer. Our job is to guide you through the process of your claim, and that includes ensuring that you understand what legal options are available to you. We’re happy to ease your stress and answer all and any questions you may have, may they be about your claim or our experience. Some of these questions may be:
- How long have you been practicing personal injury law?
- How many injury law cases have you handled?
- Have you done any cases like mine before? What was the result?
- Can you provide me with references and testimonials?
- Do you only represent plaintiffs like me or do you also represent defendants who caused the accidents and their insurance companies?
- Do you have medical experts, investigators and other experts to help me prove my claim and assess my damages?
- What financial resources do you have available to fight my case?
- How much experience do you have with different insurance companies, adjusters, and their lawyers?
- Are you the only lawyer that will be working on my case?
- If you are the only lawyer working on my case, what is your caseload? Can you give my case the time it deserves?
Our personal injury lawyers offer a free consultation because we know how important it is that you understand your claim, including any weaknesses in your case. We will ask you lots of questions about the motor vehicle accident and your injuries to get an overview of the case. We will explain the claims process, deadlines, costs, and answer any questions you may have. Our goal is to make sure you come away with an understanding of your rights and that you get legal advice from an experienced personal injury lawyer so that you can make decisions about your future based on full information.
We have offices in Grande Prairie, Fairview, Edmonton, La Crete and Spirit River. We serve all of Alberta, including Fort McMurray, Grande Cache, High Level, High Prairie, Manning, Peace River, Sexsmith, Slave Lake, and Valleyview.