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One of the arguments that insurance companies use to deny claims is that the person did not seek treatment until well after the accident. The more time that passes between the time of the accident and the time of treatment the worse it will be for your case. Ideally, you should go to the emergency room on the day of the accident in order to document the fact that you were injured in the accident. The problem is that at the time of an accident, your adrenaline and heart rate will be high and you won’t be feeling pain in the way that you will be feeling it after two or three days. This is particularly true with soft tissue injuries, which do not involve broken bones but can involve strains to tendons, bruising, or whiplash injuries. By the time you begin feeling stiffness from a soft tissue injury, it may be so severe that you cannot even get out of bed.
If you feel any pain after an accident, go to the emergency room—even if you don’t think that you are significantly injured. There may be something wrong with you that never truly goes away, and you might have a much more serious problem than you initially believe. Just because you don’t have a broken bone doesn’t mean that something isn’t out of alignment or disrupted in some way. I have handled numerous cases for clients who ended up needing spinal surgeries, and they did not even feel the need to seek medical care until three or four days after the accident. Ultimately, their medical bills amounted to over $100,000.
Any gap in treatment is something that an insurance adjuster is going to try to use against you. It is difficult for people who are working to make it to every doctor’s appointment. However, if you miss appointments, the insurance company is going to argue that you missed them because you weren’t really hurt.
What Factors May Cause My Personal Injury Claim To Go Into Litigation?
Ideally, your case will be settled out of court. No one wants to be in litigation for the sake of being in litigation since it is both expensive and time-consuming. However, it is not possible in every case to settle immediately out of court or to wait several months in an attempt to settle without the use of the court system. Litigation most often occurs when liability is in dispute. If you don’t know whether or not the driver was working for a company, then you may have to file a lawsuit to get that information under oath from the at-fault driver. Similarly, if you need more information pertaining to an allegation of DUI or other aggravating factor in the accident, then filing a lawsuit may be the only way for you to obtain that information. Sometimes at-fault drivers are difficult to contact or will not cooperate with their insurance company. This is something the insurance company could use as an excuse to not cover your damages. Under such circumstances, we may file a lawsuit.
For serious claims involving medical bills in the tens of thousands of dollars (or more), it is simply unrealistic to think that you will receive the full value of the claim by making a pre-litigation demand. In order to establish causation and get the full value of the claim, two attorneys will need to be working on the case in order to share information and try to settle the case through mediation. If an agreeable and fair number cannot be reached, then the case should be heard in front of a jury.
For more information on Importance Of Timely Medical Treatment, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (912) 401-8880 today.
