You’ve been in an accident. The type of accident, the type of injuries, and who or what caused the accident are all factors that can drastically affect the value of your claim. Fact is, there are certain things you cannot control, but there are some things you can control. Specifically, timely medical treatment.
I often have personal injury clients that come in and have concerns about the nature of the accident, the potential defendant/insured, and getting police reports. Claimants worry about trying to prove their case before they have even fully realized the extent of their injuries. This part is the lawyer’s job. As a Plaintiff, the best possible thing you can do is to seek immediate treatment and leave the rest to us.
If you get into an accident, you must seek treatment immediately in order to avoid the “gap in treatment” defense that the insurance company will inevitably use. Essentially, if you get into an accident, the insurance company believes that if you do not get treatment immediately, you probably were not injured or not injured very badly.
Oftentimes Plaintiffs come to me and say that they waited to go to the doctor until the next day, the weekend or the following week just to see if they would get over their injuries. This is one of the biggest mistakes that claimants make. After an accident, there is a period of time when the claimant will feel what seems like soreness. Despite the potential for bone, spinal or ligamentous injuries, the swelling that one initially feels often masks the real injury that they feel later. Once the initial swelling goes down, it stops masking the real injury. IF there is a significant injury, this is when the claimant may begin to feel numbness, tingling, stabbing pain, shoulder pain and soreness, among other symptoms.
You do not want to discover that you have had a serious injury and need to make a claim against the other driver after not going to a doctor for a week. Not only can you put a PIP claim in jeopardy, by waiting, you are giving the insurance companies a built-in excuse to demand a discount on your claim. You best move is to get treatment first, then consult with a Florida personal injury lawyer.
Daniel is a trial lawyer specializing in personal injury, insurance litigation, general civil litigation, and transactional matters in Boca Raton, Florida.