Claim in the simplest sense means that one requests or demands that he owns or has earned a particular thing. The one who claims is called a Claimant.
A claim is the main argument of any essay. A good claim is very specific and makes a very focused argument. A claim made is always supported by some evidence in order for it to be proved.
An insurance claim is the one where a request is made by a policy holder to the insurance company for covering the loss because of an incident that has taken place. An insurance policy can be taken for life, goods, theft of goods, marine, fire, etc., one has to claim the money once the loss has been incurred through the formalities that are required by the various insurance companies.
Claims made can be of various things. There can be a claim for plagiarism where one has copied someone else’s work to a huge extent. There can be psychological claims where one proves that the other has some psychological problems. One can always demand a claim of ownership in case of any property.
When one makes a claim for something, the other person can make a counter claim for the same thing. For example: In case in any contract, one makes a claim for a certain specific performance or any monetary claim, the other person can always make a counterclaim which would alter or change the claim made by the person.
The claim made by any one should be very straight forward and should not be very complicated. A teacher claims that the student has cheated during the exams. The claim made should always be true and correct with enough evidence so that it can be proved whether in or outside the Court of Law.