How do I prepare for my personal injury consultation?

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hello everyone. This is Robert Mansour and I'm going to walk you through a little consultation checklist here. If you watch this short video, it will walk you through the checklist and give you some good tips about how to prepare for your personal injury consultation. So by now you probably have your appointment set up. So the first thing we want you to bring is all photographs depicting damage to your vehicle and any physical injuries that you might have - bruises, cuts, scrapes, any visible signs of the injuries. Make sure you take pictures of all of those things. With respect to the damage photos, make sure you take damage photos from every single angle. Don't just take real closeups because sometimes it's very hard to tell what it is that we're looking at. Also try to take pictures in different lights, from different angles, whatever you can do.

If your insurance company has your vehicle, they probably took lots of photos so you can call them and ask them to send you all the photos or email them to you. You should also email the photos to info@valencialawyer.com or you can text them to us to our special text phone number that my staff probably gave you. If you're going to be sending us large photos, you can use a free resource called filemail.com where you can easily send large amounts of photos to our office as well. Please send us all your auto insurance information, the name and address of your insurance company, policy numbers, any claim numbers that you've been given. Also, if you have your declarations page (that is the summary of all the insurance coverage that you have), please sent that to us as well.

When you get that little card that you put in your glove box, they send you a copy of that declarations page. If you click right over here, you will see a sample of the declarations page and what it looks like. If you can't find it, just call your insurance company and ask them to send you your "declarations page." They should be able to email it to you. Also. If you have any insurance information regarding the other parties involved in the accident, their insurance company's policy numbers or claim numbers. If you know an adjuster's name or an adjuster's phone number who's been trying to reach you - any letters that you've been receiving from insurance companies, please send those as well or bring them to the meeting. At the very least, that stuff is very helpful. I would caution you not to talk too much to the insurance company for the responsible party until you've spoken with a lawyer to get some tips.

If you've taken your vehicle to a shop, they may have already generated a property damage estimate. If you can, bring that to the meeting or send it to us in advance. That would be helpful.  Please bring a list of any and all doctors or facilities that you've treated with so far. For example, if you've been to the hospital or you went to urgent care or your primary care physician, a chiropractor, anything like that - make a list of all those doctors and facilities and please bring that information with you. Also, if you have health insurance, please bring that healthcare information with you - copies of any healthcare cards that you might have. If you are a Medi-Cal or Medicare recipient, you should have a card. If you could please bring that to the meeting. Also bring your identification - for example your drivers license.

If you have a police report, please bring it to the meeting. If you don't have a police report yet and the police came to the scene and wrote a report, you might want to call the police station and ask them when the report might be ready. Sometimes they will actually have the very first page of the police report ready and they can send that to you even if they can't send you the whole thing. So you might want to ask about that. Also, your insurance company may have already obtained a police report if you gave them the information on that police card that they give you at the scene. Your insurance company may have already obtained that police report. So you might want to check with them.

Basically bring everything that is related to the accident to the meeting. If in doubt, bring it. And then down here you will find some very helpful "do's and don'ts" about accident cases - things you should not do and things that you should do. It's a good idea if you spend a couple of minutes reviewing that information as well. Anyway, I look forward to seeing you at our initial consultation and I hope this video is helpful. Thank you so much.