Not every car accident that happens should warrant filing a lawsuit and sometimes, a lawyer would not want to touch your car accident case because of reasons that are not under your control. In other cases, you might not be interested in bearing the cost for an attorney’s fees or even ready to pay the cost for the constant trial fees so in this case, what other options do you have or what else can you do. Taking your case to a small claims court is the option you have so check out our how to sue an insurance company in small claims court article.
The importance of this guide is to show you the easy steps that you can take when you want to file a case in a small claims court against an insurance company and in this article, you would also get to find out if this step is worth taking. If you are not familiar with a small claims court or maybe you might be hearing it for the first time, it is a smaller court in charge of listening to smaller dollar amount disputes between individuals and insurance companies. A trial by judge is what courts that are authorized to try out small claims are called.
Small claims court also capable of carrying out several other judicial functions and these functions also includes counseling both parties so a settlement can be reached or meditating cases as well. Depending on judicial districts and the state, small claims court can also have other names too. Why people prefer small claims court is because it helps in avoiding visiting a regular court and also skips having that lawyer and court relationship where you would have to file a case in a regular court.
Another benefit that comes with taking your case to a small claims court is you do not have to pay for attorney fees so instead of taking the offer the claims adjuster has offered you, you can end up fighting the insurer yourself and they also cannot make use of a lawyer that would defend them in a small claims court. This same, this case is a way to make both the individual and the insurance company a great equalizer. Small claims court deals with soft tissue and low impact claims as well as finding it easy to win over the judge.
How To Sue An Insurance Company In Small Claims Court
The way to start filing for any claim is by submitting a claim form or statement of claim which will get tabled on the desk of the clerk and the clerk would also help you when it comes to filling out this form. When filling out this form, ensure that any information you are providing is provided in a brief manner. The most important thing here is being able to justify the amount that you are asking for while the address and full name of the defendant should be listed as well in the form you are filling.
The facts of your case should be well detailed and if the claims also has written documents that would help your case then it is important that you attach all of the documents and these documents might include contracts, repair bills, leases and notes. The duplicates of these documents should be attached to the form and not the originals and also have it in mind that you are going to pay a fee to the court clerk. This fee is what we call the filing fee and the amount you would pay as filing fee is dependent on the sum of the lawsuit.
What Happens At The Trial?
If a date for the final hearing has been set then you need to get yourself very prepared. This preparation should involve having all of your evidences ready as well as any document that would be helpful to your case. You should also list witnesses that would come up and testify in your favor. You can subpoena a witness if you feel he might not want to show up in court and if there isn’t a subpoena and a witness doesn’t show up then the judge would proceed with the hearing without the witness.
Here you have the best and accurate information on how to sue an insurance company in small claims court but it is also very important that you still contact a lawyer even though he would not defend you in a small claims court but he would help you in gathering evidences in exchange for some fees.
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