If you’ve been injured and sustained a disability as a result, then you know that the process of appealing a denied disability claim can be a long and arduous process. To protect your rights during this process, you may want to work with a skilled attorney. An experienced injury lawyer will be able to guide you through the disability appeal claim and help you gather all the necessary documents and submit them on time.
Gathering all relevant information and documentation is essential to receive a favorable decision from your insurance company. You will likely have documentation from your doctors and medical statements to help prove your case, but acquiring a witness statement from a family member, spouse, close friend, or co-worker may help your case even more.
What is a Witness Statement?
A witness statement is a letter written from the point of view of the witness, who can be your spouse, a family member, a co-worker, or a friend. This letter is meant to detail the changes they have observed in you since you were injured and disabled.
A witness statement should be written in a personal manner and can include the author’s thoughts, opinions, and personal anecdotes on how they have seen your behavior change since being disabled.
Who Should Write A Witness Statement for You?
You can ask a variety of people to write a witness statement for you. It’s likely that your co-workers will see you impacted by your disability in different ways than how your family sees you are impacted. Getting multiple different perspectives from different people in your life will help to paint a more full and compelling picture of how your day-to-day life has been impacted by your disability.
Some people you may think about asking to write a witness statement include:
- Spouse or partner
- Former co-workers
- Neighbors
- Family members
- Friends
- Siblings
- Grown children
- Former employers
How Does a Witness Statement Help my Claim?
A witness statement may help your claim by providing your insurer with a full picture of how your life has been impacted. It is important that whoever writes a witness statement for you is completely honest in their statement and provides an accurate observation of your condition.
Insurers are required to take into consideration witness statements along with medical evidence, and give full and fair consideration to all evidence provided in the appeal process.
Unfortunately, witness statements don’t guarantee a favorable outcome in your disability claim, however, they do help to provide your insurer with more information than they would get in your medical records alone. Because private disability claims are submitted on paper to insurance companies for review, rather than being presented in person, in court, you don’t have a chance to call witnesses or present evidence. Witness statements are a helpful way to make up for this, as they are written witness testimony and help to provide context.