If you have never watched a claim ripen from chaos to clarity, a demand package can seem mysterious. Clients often imagine it as a single letter that names a number and asks the insurer to pay. In practice, a good demand package is closer to a well-edited case file wrapped in a narrative the adjuster can understand. It is the point where investigation, medical documentation, liability analysis, and damages all meet. If the work is done carefully, the demand often shortens the path to settlement. If it is rushed or thin, you pay for it later in lowball offers or avoidable litigation.
I have spent years assembling these packages for crash victims, fall injuries, and more complicated cases involving commercial policies and multiple defendants. What follows is how a personal injury lawyer, whether you call them a car accident lawyer, car accident attorney, or simply an advocate, actually builds a demand that gets taken seriously.
The timeline from first call to formal demand
The process starts long before any letter goes out. In the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours after a new case comes in, the focus is triage: preserve evidence, identify coverage, and protect the client from missteps. If it is a car wreck, we request the police crash report, photograph the vehicles, and track down independent witnesses while car accident attorney memories are fresh. We send letters of representation to every insurer that might be involved, which stops direct contact with the client and channels communication through counsel. We also put carriers on notice to preserve recorded statements, dash cam footage, and telematics if commercial vehicles are involved.
Medical treatment drives the value of the claim. That is not cynical, it is practical. A demand sent before the client reaches maximum medical improvement almost always leaves money on the table. Early in the case, we coach clients on the importance of consistent care: go to appointments, follow through with referrals, and report all symptoms, not just the most obvious ones. Insurance adjusters review treatment timelines like auditors. Gaps in care or missed therapy sessions need an explanation, and it is easier to build that context in real time than to patch it later.
The demand typically goes out when three things line up: liability clarity, stable medical documentation, and a complete picture of economic loss. For many car accident cases, that window falls between three to eight months after the crash. For fractures, surgeries, or traumatic brain injuries, the window widens, sometimes to a year or more. I tell clients to be patient with a purpose. Rushing a demand is like picking a fruit that is not ripe. Waiting forever is not wise either, because evidence goes stale. The art is knowing when the record is strong enough that the next dollar of waiting is not worth the time.
Building the spine of the demand: liability
Everything starts with “who is at fault” and “can we prove it.” A polished demand does not bury the lead. If the defendant was cited for running a red light, that fact sits up front. If a commercial truck’s event data recorder shows speed and braking that contradicts the driver’s story, we say so plainly. In disputed liability cases, we quietly do the heavy lifting before sending a single page.
I have flown a drone to capture sightlines at a busy intersection because photographs from ground level did not show how a hedgerow blocked the defendant’s view. The video let us rebut a blame-shifting claim that our client “darted out.” In another case, we hired a human factors expert to explain why a driver’s glance away from the road for two seconds at highway speed creates more than a football field of blind travel. That way, when the adjuster reads the demand, the conclusions feel inevitable, not argumentative.
Evidence that often strengthens liability includes the police report, body cam footage, traffic camera clips, 911 recordings, photographs of the scene and vehicles, repair estimates, and statements from eyewitnesses. If there is a dispute, we seek out ECM downloads on trucks, subpoena phone records for suspected texting, and consult reconstructionists. We do not dump everything on the insurer. We select what tells the clearest story and anticipate rebuttals. An adjuster should finish the liability section with two impressions: the facts are solid, and the lawyer has the receipts.
Medical story, not just medical records
Medical records are a maze, full of abbreviations and boilerplate. A strong demand translates that maze into a human story supported by precise citations. The structure matters. We start with a brief client snapshot: age, work, family responsibilities, and health before the incident. Preexisting conditions are not a liability, they are part of the truth. Trying to hide them invites suspicion. Instead, we frame them correctly. If our client had occasional back soreness before the crash but returned to running three miles most mornings, that context helps an adjuster understand why post-crash MRI findings and pain levels mark a new baseline.
From there, we walk through the timeline of care with dates, providers, diagnoses, and key findings. ER notes, imaging results, specialist consultations, and physical therapy progress reports each serve a purpose. When operative reports exist, we translate the medical jargon into a few measured sentences that convey what changed inside the body. If the doctor placed a plate and six screws, we show that hardware image. If the injury is invisible, like a concussion, we do the careful work of connecting symptom tracking to neuropsychological testing and missed workdays. Adjusters see hundreds of files. They pay attention when the clinical picture is coherent and cleanly organized.
A common mistake is to send a mountain of records without curation. Another is to hope the adjuster will infer severity from length of treatment alone. We contextualize the medical choices: why injections were chosen over surgery, why a pause in therapy coincided with a child’s hospitalization, why pain flares when the client sits for more than thirty minutes. That context lifts numbers off the page and ties them to real life.
Economics that add up at first pass
No one enjoys redoing math, especially a busy claims professional. We deliver damages in a way that can be verified quickly. Medical bills are itemized and cross-referenced to the corresponding records. If health insurance paid some of the bills, we address liens and subrogation up front. Some clients are insured through ERISA plans or Medicare, which changes the repayment landscape. If a hospital filed a statutory lien, we flag it, include the ledger, and, where appropriate, document negotiated reductions. The goal is credibility. When an adjuster trusts your numbers, the negotiations start on higher ground.
Lost wages require the same discipline. For hourly workers, we calculate missed hours by date ranges tied to employer statements or pay stubs. For salaried employees, we show accrued PTO depletion and the value of that time. For self-employed clients, we lean on tax returns, 1099s, and a simple profit-and-loss snapshot. If the business is seasonal, we explain the seasonality and why comparing Q2 to Q4 would be misleading. If the injury impairs future earning capacity, the demand may include a vocational assessment or a CPA’s analysis. Claims for future care are supported by a treatment plan and cost projections from either the physician or a life care planner in more serious cases.
One quiet but important step happens behind the scenes: we verify that the bills reflect the reasonable value of services in the area. If a provider used a billing code that insurers often flag as excessive, we get clarification or a corrected statement. Cleaning up those small errors pays dividends in avoided disputes.
Pain, suffering, and the human details that matter
Non-economic damages get discounted in sloppy demands, often because they read like clichés. This is where lived detail counts. Insurers know that people heal at uneven speeds. They also know that juries connect with specifics, not adjectives. If a client’s neck spasms keep her from lifting her toddler into a car seat, that sentence does more work than five paragraphs of generalities. If a high school coach had to sit out a season because running triggers migraines, we say so and attach the email he sent to his team. If a retired hobbyist can no longer spend an hour in the woodshop without numbness, we include photographs of the half-finished project gathering dust.
We do not oversell. Overreaching sounds like overreaching. When a scar is small and hidden, we describe it honestly, not as disfiguring. When pain improved with therapy, we acknowledge the improvement and focus on what limitations remain. Credibility is currency. You do not spend it on exaggeration.
Policy limits, layered coverage, and liens
Before a demand number ever appears, a personal injury lawyer maps the insurance stack. Many car accident cases are driven by policy limits. The at-fault driver might carry only a minimum policy. If your injuries exceed that, we look for other sources: employer policies if the driver was on the clock, permissive-use coverage on the vehicle owner, or underinsured motorist coverage on the client’s own policy. In a multi-vehicle crash or a commercial setting, there may be primary and excess layers. You do not demand blindly. You aim where the money is.
Every dollar grossed must make sense net. Medical liens and subrogation rights change the take-home outcome. An ERISA plan may assert a full lien; a non-ERISA plan might be negotiable under state made-whole doctrines. Medicare has its own recovery process with conditional payment letters and final demands. Tricare and Medicaid have their own rules. A thoughtful demand acknowledges these realities and sometimes includes a proposed allocation that shows how the settlement can resolve all obligations. Adjusters do not want to buy a claim that will boomerang because a lienholder was ignored.
Crafting the narrative letter
The demand letter itself is the visible tip of months of submerged effort. Its job is not to shout a number but to persuade a professional reader that paying a fair sum now is smarter than fighting. The tone matters. Polite, direct, and anchored in evidence works better than chest-thumping. Adjusters are people. They respond to clarity and fairness, and they remember lawyers who keep their word about deadlines and deliverables.
A strong letter opens with liability and transitions cleanly into injury and damages. It references exhibits with precision: “See Exhibit C, page 3, where Dr. Nguyen documents the positive Spurling’s test and corresponding C6 radiculopathy.” It ties medical findings to lived effects. It explains economic losses without jargon and acknowledges complicating factors before the adjuster has to ask. It closes with a demand that is calibrated to the file, not a random multiple of medical bills. The number should leave room for negotiation without signaling that you will accept any offer to be done.
A common question is whether to include a deadline. I generally do, two to four weeks depending on the case and carrier, because it creates focus. I also make it clear that the demand is open for good-faith discussion, not a “pay this or else” ultimatum that dares the adjuster to decline. If there is a statute of limitations approaching, the letter references that timeline. No one wants a last-minute scramble because a case sat untouched on a desk.
What goes in the exhibit stack
The exhibits are the scaffolding that holds up the narrative. They do not need to be a landfill of PDFs. They need to be targeted and indexed. A typical set might include the police crash report, relevant photos, key medical records and bills, wage loss verification, and any expert or treating physician statements. If we have a particularly strong piece of evidence, like traffic camera footage, we host it in a secure folder and provide a link with a short viewing guide. Adjusters appreciate not having their email clogged with massive files. We avoid duplicative records and leave out generic intake paperwork that adds pages but no substance.
Every exhibit gets a label and a brief description on an index page. Think of the package as something a new adjuster could pick up midstream and understand within fifteen minutes. That is not a hypothetical. Files get reassigned more often than clients realize. Making the package transferable reduces the risk of your case resetting to zero when someone retires or changes departments.
The role of treating providers and targeted opinions
Treating physicians can be reluctant to “get involved” beyond care. We respect that. Still, a short, focused letter from a provider can make a large difference. We avoid fishing expeditions. Instead, we pose three or four specific questions: the diagnosis and its relation to the crash within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, the necessity of treatments performed, the expected future care, and any functional restrictions. Most doctors will answer a concise request, especially if we supply the draft language for them to review and edit. We never put words in a provider’s mouth. The doctor owns the opinion. Our job is to make it easy to communicate it.
In some cases, a neutral specialist review adds strategic value. A radiologist’s overread that ties a finding to trauma rather than degeneration can blunt a favorite defense argument. A vocational expert can explain how a seemingly small limitation, such as reduced grip strength, affects a mechanic’s real-world output and job prospects. We use these sparingly to avoid inflating costs or appearing to manufacture claims.
Negotiation posture and anchoring the value
Once the demand goes out, the waiting starts. Good adjusters call with questions within a week. Some send a form acknowledgment and go quiet until the deadline. We do not chase immediately. We calendar a follow up a few days before the deadline to keep matters moving without appearing anxious.
The first offer is usually low. That is not personal, it is the game. We respond with reasons, not indignation. If the adjuster says, “We think the chiropractic care was excessive,” we point to the initial functional limitations, the gradual improvement, and the discharge summary from the therapist. If they argue “soft-tissue case,” we remind them that the client missed four weeks of work at a physically demanding job and was restricted by the orthopedist, not by self-report. We keep a clean record of every conversation. Files travel, and a well-documented negotiation history helps the next set of eyes understand how the numbers evolved.
There is a strategic decision point when the gap narrows but remains real. Sometimes we invite a pre-suit mediation, particularly on higher-value cases or those involving complex liens. Other times, filing suit is the only way to signal that we mean to try the case if needed. Filing does not end negotiation; it resets the context. The demand package becomes the blueprint for discovery, and an insurer that ignored a careful demand may take a very different tone once a trial date looms.
Special considerations in car crash claims
Car accident claims carry patterns that those outside the field might miss. Low-impact collisions often come with high-severity injuries in older clients or those with preexisting conditions. We invest time connecting the crash dynamics to the medical outcome, sometimes with a biomechanical consultation. Rideshare cases add layers, since coverage depends on the app’s status at the time of the crash. Commercial policies bring in FMCSA regulations, hours-of-service logs, and maintenance records that can move a case from routine to high exposure.
Underinsured motorist claims can be as adversarial as third-party claims. Your own carrier changes hats from service provider to opposing party. The demand package you send to your UM carrier must be as rigorous as the one you sent to the at-fault insurer. When both are in play, sequencing matters. We often secure the liability limits first, then tender the package to the UM carrier with proof of exhaustion and consent to settle if required by the policy. Getting that order wrong can jeopardize coverage.
When a quick demand makes sense, and when it does not
Not every case needs a long runway. If liability is crystal clear, injuries are discrete and fully resolved, and the at-fault policy is small, a swift, targeted demand can secure limits promptly. I once resolved a rear-end claim within six weeks because the client had ER care, two follow ups, a clean recovery, and the driver carried only state minimum coverage. The demand was short, the number matched the policy, and we closed with a lien negotiation that put more net dollars in the client’s pocket.
Contrast that with a client who broke an ankle, underwent surgery, and developed complications that required a second procedure. Early settlement would have undervalued future care and pain. We waited, documented the course, and used a treating orthopedist’s letter to outline long-term limitations. That patience moved the claim from a mid-five-figure offer to a result just under policy limits with UM benefits on top.
Keeping clients in the loop without drowning them in detail
Demand preparation happens behind the scenes, but the client’s experience should never feel like silence. We set expectations early, explaining why we sometimes wait for a medical plateau and how that choice protects value. We share major milestones: when we receive a key report, when we draft the demand, when we send it, and when the response window closes. We translate insurer speak into plain language. If an offer comes in low, we explain why and what evidence we will use to push back. Clients handle uncertainty better when they understand the plan.
The quiet discipline that separates good from average
The best demand packages feel effortless because they are the product of effort. Small habits accumulate: saving voicemail files, transcribing short witness quotes, labeling photographs with dates and angles, confirming ICD and CPT codes on bills, and double-checking that names and addresses match across every document. Adjusters notice sloppiness. They also notice craftsmanship. If your package reads like something that would play well in front of a jury, you are already negotiating with leverage.
A brief, practical checklist for clients preparing for the demand stage
- Keep every medical appointment you reasonably can, and tell your providers all symptoms, even if they seem minor. Save pay stubs, tax documents, and any employer notes about time off or restrictions. Photograph injuries as they heal and daily life adjustments that show impact, like assistive devices or modified workspaces. Do not post about the crash or your injuries on social media; insurers look. Tell your lawyer about prior injuries or claims so the record is complete and consistent.
What a strong package achieves beyond dollars
Money matters. It pays bills, replaces wages, and recognizes what cannot be undone. A strong demand package also sets a tone of respect. It tells the adjuster you value their time, that your client is a real person, and that you will try the case if you must. It invites serious negotiation rather than brinkmanship. Most injury cases do settle. The quality of the demand often determines how early and how well.
If you are choosing a personal injury lawyer or a car accident attorney, ask to see a redacted demand from a similar case. The document will tell you a lot about how that lawyer thinks, how they organize facts, and how they advocate. A polished demand is not luck. It is the result of process, judgment, and care. When those elements come together, the insurer sees what you see: a claim that deserves full value, backed by evidence that will hold up when it counts.