Whether you and your legal team are still negotiating a claim with the insurance company, or your case will inevitably go to trial, the ultimate basis of your damages will be your injuries. Although injuries in the traditional sense are physical, the actual bodily harm you suffered are likely not the only damages you experienced.
You may have had to endure physical suffering and emotional pain. You may be dealing with the loss of your own capabilities, like being unable to walk or function at the same level you could prior to the accident. Even if your injuries didn’t result in a permanent disability in the traditional sense, you might be facing long-term limited mobility.
How much those losses impact your life will vary based on how you live. A long-distance runner who suffers an ACL injury in a car crash may be able to regain their ability to walk but will never again be able to perform their sport of choice at the same level. That loss can result in a profound level of emotional suffering unique to them, and their damages should reflect that.
Some people involved in horrific car crashes suffer post-traumatic stress from their accident. Maybe they are now afraid to drive or are afflicted with agoraphobia, which can have severe negative consequences for their social life, career prospects and overall happiness.
These are all serious issues that can arise after car crashes or other personal injuries, but insurance companies, courts and juries won’t just take a layman’s word for it. In order to justify your damages, a licensed medical professional will need to diagnose you. That diagnosis might come from a medical doctor, psychologist or both.
You can tell the insurance company, “I can’t walk or go to work and now I’m afraid to leave my house. You should pay me the full policy limit for my claim,” but they likely won’t take your allegations seriously without a medical professional to back you up. It’s much harder to question or deny your claim when there are medical professionals who:
To put it simply, if you don’t go to a doctor after your car crash or slip and fall, the insurance company might not take your claim seriously.
Personal injury plaintiffs are often their own worst enemies. They frequently make mistakes that jeopardize their own case. These mistakes often aren’t intentional. Plaintiffs may not realize they’ve done anything wrong until it’s too late.
For example, most people don’t like going to the doctor. As a society, we tend to encourage people to “tough it out,” or “walk it off.” You should have the opposite attitude after being involved in an accident.
Failing to see a doctor to have your injuries officially documented and diagnosed will essentially make it impossible to successfully file an injury claim. Why should the insurance company pay out a large claim for medical costs you didn’t incur? From a legal standpoint, there’s really no difference between not suffering an injury and being unable to prove you suffered an injury.
Even a delay in seeking medical care can jeopardize your ability to collect compensation. The claims adjuster may assume that any person with serious injuries would have gone to the emergency room or sought medical attention immediately.
Delayed treatment doesn’t necessarily make your case impossible to win. It’s not entirely uncommon for people to be diagnosed with concussions or whiplash days after their initial accident. However, the longer you wait, the harder it may be to recover compensation.
Another primary reason to see a doctor right away is injury attribution. If you see a doctor several days after an accident, the insurance company may question whether the source of your injury was actually the crash caused by their policyholder. For all they know, maybe you slipped in the shower or tripped on a step the day after the car crash and are now filing an accident claim to get money to treat that unrelated injury.
You can avoid claim complications caused by professionally suspicious insurance company claims adjusters by seeing a doctor, going to the emergency room or visiting a chiropractic clinic immediately after your injury. The insurance company will find it much harder to dispute the assessment of a licensed medical professional and the diagnostic imaging results they produce.
A personal injury lawyer can also help ensure your claim is treated fairly. If you have been injured in a car accident in Duluth, call the Zdrilich Law Group at (770) 931-9604.
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Zdrilich Injury Law is committed to helping injured Georgians receive the money they need to recover physically and financially after an accident.
Zdrilich Injury Law, LLC providers one-on-one representation to car accident, truck accident and workers’ compensation clients in Georgia.
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