The Need for Communication:
In 2012 Insurance Companies started making unrealistic low ball offers on all accident cases. For instance with a rear end accident with good property damage and $9,000 in medicals we see offers of $6,000. This is not even enough to pay all your bills let alone anything for you. That is why with many soft tissue cases we tell the prospective client to just go to small claims court and sue for up to $7,500.
We ask our client, who is referred to as the plaintiff, to communicate all of his or her pain and suffering to the treating medical providers so that it can be incorporated into a medical/legal report. The medical report is then given to us and we present it to the adjuster/the defense insurance company, the Judge and/or Jury. Based on that medical report a lawyer tries to settle your case and tries to get as much money as possible for your pain and suffering. The general rule is that if it is not important enough to tell your doctor, there is no basis for being paid for that pain and suffering.
In addition to telling the doctor, it is important to tell your lawyer about all your injuries. Sometimes those additional problems might suggest to us, and your doctor, the need for treatment with other medical providers. In that case, I can call your doctor and determine whether it would be appropriate for the doctor to refer you to a specialist which could be an orthopedist, neurologist, TMJ or eye specialist or even a psychologist.
In order to help you communicate to your doctor and my office, I have found it helpful to have my clients keep a diary. You should go to a drug store and buy a spiral notebook that is to be used as a diary. You should take the first couple of pages and write down all the facts surrounding the accident. This should include information regarding the day the accident occurred, the time, the day of the week, road conditions, what direction you were traveling, the nearest intersection and all identifying information on the defendant, witnesses, insurance, etc.
In your diary, use the first couple of pages to summarize all the facts of the accident and who said what to whom, etc. You should write down all of the pain you have encountered from the date of the accident to the date you started keeping the diary. Then keep this up on a daily basis until the doctor discharges you. You should become very introspective. By that I mean you should start with the top of your head and work down to the bottom of your toes trying to describe what portions of your body are hurting.
It may be that as you are sitting with your arms on your desk that your arm isn’t hurting you. However, you may notice as you hold one arm over your head while blow drying your hair in the morning, that your arm may start to fall asleep or you may develop a tingling sensation in your arm, hands and or fingertips. In other words, your body may react differently in different positions. As you lean over to pick up a pencil, you may have a pain in your head or side that wasn’t there when you were sitting straight up. Sometimes one pain is so severe that it masks other pain. That means you would not be aware of some of these medical conditions until the mail problem starts to resolve.
After an accident, your concern is to heal your body (by seeing medical providers) and also to fix your car. If there is a difficult part in the handling of an accident case, it is with respect to the handling of the property damage.
When you are in an accident and have to deal with the at fault parties insurance company you will realize that YOU ARE NOT IN GOOD HANDS AND YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBOR will NOT GIVE YOU A PIECE OF THE ROCK.
That is why you should keep the number of a lawyer by the phone so that a decision on who to call after an accident can be made when you are not distressed. By doing so the old adage of People Don’t Plan to Fail, They Fail To Plan, will not apply to you. This was the saying I used at the start of every Accidentally Yours radio show I hosted.
