I am short on money due to the accident-are there any benefits I may be able to obtain quickly to tide me over?

ANSWER: Yes, there are some but they are not available to everyone. First, if your injury was "work related" you should investigate whether or not you have a workers compensation claim, which may pay for your medical bills and some temporary or permanent disability payments usually quicker than a personal injury claim. Second, if you have been totally disabled from any gainful employment for over a year you may be entitled to monthly Social Security benefits as long as you remain disabled. We can refer you to attorneys who are experienced in each of these areas of law to determine whether or not you have such a claim. Sometimes medical payments insurance or some other type of no-fault coverage exists which can be recovered quickly since you do not have to prove fault like you do in a liability claim. You may be fortunate enough to have purchased or received through your work, a disability insurance policy which, depending upon the definition of disabled, may come into play. Medicaid or Medicare may pay for medical bills if you have no other health insurance, provided that you qualify under their guidelines. The Tort Victims Compensation Fund was created to help those people who have no other recourse because a judgment against the responsible party is uncollectible. There are a few other potential sources of money to tide you over and some banks may make small loans based on the fact that a law firm they trust is pursuing a personal injury claim on your behalf in which it thinks recovery is likely. However, sometimes none of these recourses are available to you and consequently, your best approach is to pursue your personal injury claim as soon as possible so that the inevitable delay in recovering compensation causes as little financial harm as possible. Certainly, do not tell the insurance adjustor handling your claim that you need money because that will affect their evaluation of your claim and may cause them to submit a lower offer depending upon how desperate you seem.