Getting injuries documented by a medical professional immediately after an accident is very important. However, sometimes a person is unable to get to a medical professional right away. It depends on whether or not the amount of time that lapsed was reasonable based on the type of injuries. Or, it could be that they didn’t notice that they were injured from the accident. Perhaps they were shaken up after the accident and didn’t feel pain until three, four, or five days later. At that point, the pain is so severe that they would need medical attention.
It could be appropriate to engage in active care, which means taking care of yourself with rest, stretching, and over-the-counter medications. If those don’t fix or address your complaints or complaints, you could then seek passive care. Passive care is when you go to a medical professional to engage in treatments and therapies. However, generally it is best to seek a medical professional to get your injuries diagnosed and properly documented as soon as you can.
If a case cannot be settled with the insurance company, it will go into court, and your medical history would become relevant at that time. Once your body is at issue with different injuries, any past medical history and treatments can be accessed by the defense. However, if your medical history or treatments are irrelevant to the case, then that information should not be given over to the defense or insurance company.
If properly addressed by an attorney, any unrelated injuries or illnesses should not impact your case. That means that the attorney should look at all the injuries and illnesses to determine whether there is any relevance to the motor vehicle accident.
A classic defense that insurance companies use to avoid paying out injury claims is the minor impact defense. The minor impact defense is used when the insurance company says that the dollar amount to repair the vehicle was not very much in terms of money. Therefore, the person could not have been seriously injured from the accident. The insurance company’s attorney would be able to get around a lot of the issues. If the case has to be taken to trial, it can be quite expensive. The plaintiff side would have to hire experts against the defense’s experts. The experts are usually accident reconstructionists.
Another tactic that insurance companies like to use is a malingering treatment. The defense will argue that the claimant’s injuries should have been resolved within a couple of weeks of the accident. If they’re treating longer than 10-11 weeks, then the rest of the care is not medically necessary. Therefore, they shouldn’t have to pay for it. They can also argue that the claimant should not have missed that much work. The insurance companies could use various evidentiary defenses, which means that the claimant isn’t bringing in or documenting the proper evidence of their injuries, claims to lost wages, and out-of-pocket expenses.
If there are gaps in care, the defense can use that against your claim. If you waited too long to seek treatment for your injuries, they could say that you weren’t really that hurt and that you’re essentially lying. Or, they can say that the injury was caused by something else, not the accident.
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