When you are injured in a car accident that was caused by another person, you should definitely seek medical attention as soon as possible in order to ensure that your personal injury claim is as strong as it can be.
To make a claim for injuries that you suffered from a car wreck, you must generally show the following:
Obtaining medical treatment immediately upon being injured in a car accident is vital to your personal injury claim because it goes to showing causation. Automobile insurance companies that normally pay personal injury claims often view a gap or delay in treatment as interfering with causation. Although there are many reasons that you may have delayed medical treatment after your car accident, car insurance companies try to use delays or gaps in treatment to lower the value of your personal injury claim. The insurance companies’ argument is basically if you were so hurt, why didn’t you go to the doctor immediately or why didn’t you continue to treat consistently after you were injured.
Sure, your reasons (maybe you did not have health insurance or enough money to pay for treatment; maybe you did not feel pain until the day after the wreck; maybe you did not have transportation to go to the doctor) for not treating or for delaying treatment may be legitimate, but insurance companies are looking for ways to pay you as little as possible for your claim. Thus, it is vital that you obtain treatment as soon as possible and continue treatment until you are better or until your doctor releases you.
A delay or gap in treatment doesn’t kill your claim entirely. You may still overcome issues with gaps or delays in treatment that are explained legitimately, but such issues do weaken your overall claim.
About the Author Betty Nguyen Davis is an Atlanta attorney who solely focuses her practice on plaintiff’s personal injury work. Betty is consistently recognized by her peers as a top attorney in Georgia by Super Lawyers and Georgia Trend and is highly recommended by her clients as a aggressive and persistent, yet caring and accessible attorney.