Medical Treatments

How to damage your personal injury case

We’ve unfortunately seen a few accident victims who could teach a course on “how to damage your personal injury case.” To avoid damaging your case, contact our office for a free consultation today at 312-848-9783. Or read below for a few of the common ways that accident victims damage their case.

Dishonesty

The first lesson in how to damage your personal injury case is by lying to the insurance adjuster. The truth is going to come out. The facts will be verified by the parties, an independent witness, an expert witness, or the physical evidence/property damage. As such, it’s better to be honest up front with your attorney or the insurance adjuster. It avoids being called to the carpet later.

Also, in Illinois and many other states, you can recover for your damages even if you are partially responsible for the accident under the theory of comparative negligence. It’s much better to accept 20 (or whatever) percent responsibility for the accident up front than have the insurance deny your claim entirely because you were dishonest.

Medical Treatment

Another way how to damage your personal injury case involves your medical treatment. First, often accident victims don’t immediately seek medical treatment – this is a mistake. If you didn’t get medical treatment right after the accident, it is very difficult to tie subsequent ailments to your accident.

Many people will get medical treatment after an accident but then won’t get any additional treatment (like physical therapy) for weeks or months thereafter. That results in a “gap in treatment.” Gaps in treatment are something that insurance companies utilize to diminish claims. Their argument is that something else could have caused your injuries during the gap (slip and fall/another accident/work injury). As such, it’s important to engage in a continual course of treatment after an accident.

Some people don’t follow their doctor’s instructions regarding medical treatment. The doctor instructs them to undergo physical therapy or use crutches, but they refuse. As a result, they are “non-compliant” with a doctor’s instructions. This is something that an astute insurance adjuster will point out to diminish your claim. You have a duty to take steps to minimize your injuries and failure to do so will be used against you.

Don’t “tough it out.” When you’re at your doctor’s office, tell the doctor/RN/NP about all your injuries. Do not diminish the pain you are going through. As we discussed in another blog article on documenting your injuries, if your injury is not documented in the medical records, it doesn’t exist to the insurance company. Don’t tough it out, tell them about everything you’re going through.

Social Media

Posting on Facebook or any other social media about your accident can hurt your case. I’ve discussed a situation before where I observed a client engaging in vigorous activity at a time when he was recovering from an injury. If we saw it online, so did the insurance adjuster. As such, be cautious about what you post on social media.

As an aside, whenever we sign up a new client, we check the defendants’ social media as well for information we can use against them. So social media can be a double-edged sword.

Recorded Statements/Sign Documents

Another “how to damage your personal injury case” is to give a recorded statement to the insurance adjuster and/or to sign any of the insurance company’s documents without consulting with an attorney first.

The insurance adjuster is not on your side. They want to delay, deny and diminish your claim. As such, they will use the recorded statement against you later to call into your question your credibility. Few people can tell a story the exact same way two or three times.

Also, insurance adjusters will often get you to sign a release as soon as they can. If any additional medical issues arise after you sign, you are out of luck. Also, they will get you to sign a medical release which gives them the authorization to obtain all your medical records. You should control what they see, not them.

For more information about to avoid damaging your personal injury case, contact our office for a free consultation at 312-848-9783.

We’ve recently signed up several new clients who we urged to get medical treatment right away. Stories below.

Many of the new cases have been auto accident cases (not many people riding bicycles or motorcycles right now in Illinois). However, I’ve noticed a trend recently. Mainly, that many clients are calling us up and they have no idea what their injuries are. Their ankle hurts or their knee or shoulder. They went to the emergency room right after the accident (sometimes the morning after) and were checked out. However, they realized quickly that an E.R. doesn’t provide optimum care. They will stabilize you and get you out to a specialist. As such, clients are coming home from the hospital not knowing what is really wrong with them.

Then they make the mistake of talking with the insurance company, telling them everything, and possibly even settling for a small amount. This is a mistake.

Two clients that come quickly to mind include “Rory” who got rear ended in an accident down near Aurora, Illinois. His shoulder which had pre-existing issues was thrust forward. Rory is a vet so his medical care is awful at the VA. They put him off and put him off until a couple months later they realized he suffered a fracture in the head of his shoulder.

Another client “Lee” who we recently signed up was injured near Des Plaines, Illinois. He was feeling pain in his neck but didn’t act on it right after his accident. We encouraged him to get to a doctor immediately and here we are a few weeks (and a cervical MRI) later and he in fact has a bulging disc.

Both these guys would have suffered the short end of the stick if they didn’t pursue further medical attention. They might have settled their case for a nominal amount or they might have waited six months to get any treatment which only would have opened the door for the insurance company to argue “gap in treatment.”

The bottom line – get in an accident, contact an attorney and get medical treatment.

If you have a question about your accident, call me at 847-305-4105. Barry Zlotowicz