Sample Confirmation Letter Used In Injury Settlement Negotiations

During the course of your personal injury claim settlement negotiations, you're likely to have a number of phone conversations with someone from the other side—whether it's the other party, an insurance adjuster, or an attorney. With verbal communications like these, it's often important to follow up the conversation with a confirmation letter or email that puts in writing what was discussed or promised.

When Should You Send a Confirmation Letter or Email?

If you talk on the phone (or in person) with someone on the other side of your personal injury claim, and you're told or promised something—or given some information that you want to make sure isn't later denied or changed—it's probably a good idea to confirm in writing what was said. This includes statements or promises about:

• the identity of witnesses
• property damage or repair estimates
• insurance coverage details
• documents or records you've asked for
• review of your medical records or bills
• when they'll make a settlement offer
• when they'll respond to your demand letter or counter-offer

Basically, if you have any inkling at all that you'd like to preserve a record of what was said, immediately after the conversation you should send a confirming letter. The letter doesn't have to be elaborate, just a brief restatement of what was said.

Is It Okay to Send a Confirmation Email?

Yes. These days, the bulk of personal injury settlement negotiation might occur through emails sent back and forth by both sides. So, chances are that most information that's provided and most promises that are made will already be "in writing," in the sense that they're preserved in your email system. There's no need to send a separate confirmation in these situations. Just make sure you don't delete any emails related to your claim.

When settlement-related phone conversations take place, it's fine to send an email (as opposed to a "snail mail" letter) confirming what was conveyed or what was promised. You can do this all in the body of the email, or you can write a more formal confirmation letter using Word, Google Docs, or a similar program, then convert the file it to a more permanent format like PDF, and send it as an attachment to an email.

Make Sure You Copy or Keep Track of the Confirmation

If you're sending a letter that you've typed out, or one you've written and printed using a program like Word or Google Docs, be sure to keep a hard copy for yourself or keep track of the digital file's location. If you're using traditional mail to send the confirmation letter, there's no need to send it certified or do anything other than put proper postage on the envelope. If you're sending the confirmation via email, it'll be preserved in your "Sent" folder.

Sample Confirmation Letter

To help you get an idea of what this kind of correspondence might look like, a sample confirming letter is shown below. You can follow this format for almost any important (or seemingly important) piece of information to make sure that it's part of the "paper trail" in your personal injury claim.

This sample letter is excerpted from How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim by Attorney Joseph Matthews (Nolo).