Injury Handbook pages are written to be accurate, useful, fair to injured people and insurers alike, and honest about where each fact comes from and what a page cannot know. This page sets out how that works and where its limits are.
This page is general information, not legal, tax or medical advice, and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Injury law and deadlines vary by state and change. Ask a lawyer or the court about your situation.
How a page is made
- Research. We start from statutes, court opinions, court and agency pages, and federal documents, and note what they do and do not settle.
- Writing. A draft is written from that research under the Injury Handbook name.
- Fact-check. A separate check compares each deadline, rule, limit, fee, percentage and date with its source, and reworks every sum on the page.
- Graphics. Any charts or diagrams repeat figures from the text and add no new facts. A legal deadline in a graphic shows its state, statute and read date. No graphic shows a settlement amount or percentage as typical.
- Final review. A last read looks for errors, gaps and anything that could mislead someone about a deadline, a notice or a court step. If it finds a serious problem, the page is fixed and reviewed again. We do not publish a page with a serious problem still open.
Each page ends with the date its sources were checked. No process catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake.
Our sources
Every deadline, limit, cap, fee, percentage, form and rule links to a primary source at the claim: statutes, court opinions, court pages, state insurance departments and other agencies, and federal sources such as the IRS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. A state rule reaches a page only if we read it in the statute or on an official court or agency page. If we cannot confirm something, we leave it out or say plainly that it is not confirmed. Our how we check page explains how each kind of fact is handled.
Law firm pages are never a source, not for a rule, a figure, an example or a statistic. Claims from firms and sellers appear only as claims we have checked, without naming the firm.
Rules for every page
A wrong line about a deadline can cost someone a claim. So every page follows these rules:
- A clear note near the top. Every page says it is general information, not legal, tax or medical advice, and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney, that injury law and deadlines vary by state and change, and who to ask about your situation.
- No national rule that doesn’t exist. There is no national injury deadline, fault rule, fee cap or rule for minors. We explain how it works, then give only the state rows we have read.
- Statute and read date. Every state figure shows both, in text, tables and graphics. Rows we have not read say “not confirmed” and point to that state’s courts.
- No “your deadline is”. Deadline pages and tools show the rule, the statute, the read date and the exceptions, with a warning that an earlier date may apply and that waiting until the last day is unsafe.
- No average settlement figures. We found no public dataset of settlement amounts, so no page gives an average, typical or usual settlement, or repeats one from elsewhere. Worked examples use round numbers labelled as examples.
- No personal verdicts. Pages explain the process, what each choice involves and when lawyers are usually involved. They never say what a claim is worth, whether you would win, or whether you should sue, settle, accept or reject an offer, hire a lawyer or talk to an adjuster.
- No letters or forms to fill in. Pages may list what a demand letter or claim usually covers, but we offer no template, letter generator or release. Government claim forms are linked at the agency or court.
- No medical advice. We give no diagnosis, treatment or symptom advice. Where health matters, pages say to follow your treating clinician.
- Tax figures carry their source and edition. Where the IRS does not say something directly, we say so and send you to a tax professional.
What we do not claim
- We are not a law firm, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship.
- We do not claim to have handled the claims, filed the cases or negotiated the settlements we describe.
- We do not invent authors, quotes, client stories, case results or reader comments.
- We do not rank or recommend lawyers, insurers or companies, and we do not call anyone “best”.
- We do not call an offer, a fee or an amount “fair” or “good” for your situation. Calculators give estimates from your own numbers.
- Photos are stock images chosen to illustrate a topic. They do not show accidents, people or cases we know of, and we do not use crash scenes or images of injuries.
Fairness
Pages are written for people on every side of a claim: injured people, families, drivers who were at fault, and anyone trying to understand an insurer’s letter. We describe what insurers and adjusters do without casting them as villains, and what lawyers do without selling their services. Where courts disagree, or a rule is unsettled, we show that and do not pick a winner. Sometimes the honest answer is that a court or a lawyer has to answer the question.
Calculators
Our calculators are formulas with named inputs and shown working, and each formula is checked against answers worked by hand before it goes live. They work only with numbers you enter. Every default that is a rate or a rule says where it comes from, or that it is our assumption, and you can change it. They give estimates, never a value for a claim or a verdict.
Updates and corrections
Deadlines, fault rules and limits change, so pages are rechecked on the schedule set out on our how we check page, and sooner when we learn a source they rely on has changed. A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Errors are fixed and recorded on our corrections page.
Sister site
We sometimes link to one sister site, Executor Handbook, where a wrongful death claim meets an estate, such as when a personal representative has to be appointed. It is connected to us, which is why we call it a sister site. It is also funded by display ads, so a visit there can earn ad money too. It sells no leads and makes no referrals.
Advertising and independence
Display advertising pays for this site, and advertisers have no say over what we publish. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads, make no lawyer referrals and offer or link to no settlement loans. Our about page has more on how the site works.