Had An Injury Recently? How To Deal With It The Right Way

It’s one thing if you’re injured because of something you did. Some water you spilled on the kitchen floor causes you to fall and hurt yourself, you think, that’s my fault and I’ll be more careful next time.

It’s a different story when you’re made to suffer an injury that was someone else’s fault. Worse, they won’t acknowledge that their negligence is the source of all your current pain and discomfort. If the injury is a relatively minor one, you might decide to absorb the costs related to it yourself. After all, you reason, you don’t want to compound things by drawing the incident out. You want to get back to your normal life as quickly as possible.

But what if it wasn’t so easy? What if the injury was serious, requiring months of rehabilitative care? What if it permanently took away your ability to earn an income for yourself and your family? You can’t just let things be.

What you need to do

There’s a right way and a wrong way to handle this situation. The right way involves realising you may have to approach the court system to get justice in your situation and this involves a few steps.

Gather as much documentation related to the injury as possible

If you are able to, as soon as the incident that leads to your injury occurs, document the circumstances surrounding it. 

For example, if you fall into a hole on the sidewalk because there was ongoing maintenance and workers failed to properly mark the area and warn pedestrians, you can be seriously injured. 

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Let’s say you break your leg, which is an injury requiring months of down time and physical therapy to heal. You should get someone to photograph or make a video recording showing the scene with no signage to warn you or other passersby

Get the contacts of any witnesses to the injury. When you are taken to the hospital make sure to get a doctor’s report detailing your injuries. Keep records of your medical bills as well, as well as any treatments you may undergo.

Don’t negotiate with the other party’s insurance company or lawyers

The other party does not usually have your interests at heart when they reach out to you. Their lawyers and insurance companies are trying to limit how much they pay out without having to admit liability for your injury.

This affects you in a number of ways. You may accept the money because you need it right away but what you end up doing is letting them off the hook easily. You may be suffering the effects of this injury years after, but won’t be able to claim anything because you accepted that payment. As a condition, they would have made you sign a  contract preventing you from suing for future damages. 

Hire a personal injury lawyer

What you should do instead is let a lawyer do the talking for you. Reputable personal injury lawyers like Pines & Goldenzweig, PLLC will listen to your story and determine the nature of your claim. It’s unlikely a personal injury lawyer will charge you for this initial meeting, so you’re not out of pocket.

If they pursue your claim, you no longer have to worry about calls from the other party’s lawyers. Your new lawyer will handle this and all negotiations in future.

What you will be responsible for is providing your lawyer with all the documentation you collected. They will also file any paperwork you are required to file in the courts. Other than that, you just need to focus on following your doctor’s instructions, attending any physical therapy you may have to undergo and getting better.

Be a credible client. Don’t undermine your lawyer’s efforts

Your lawyer will be busy collecting evidence that proves the other party was negligent, which resulted in your injury. Do not give the other party’s lawyers evidence that weakens your case.

For example, don’t file false or exaggerated claims for medical expenses with your own insurance company. You’ll be found out as the other side has their own investigators. You may also be charged with insurance fraud and your own case dismissed. 

Also, don’t go on social media to boast that “you’re coming into money soon”. The other party will bring evidence like this to court to demonstrate that you “deliberately” injured yourself hoping for compensation and that they should not be liable.

Having an injury is inconvenient at best, debilitating at worst. Ensure that you are properly compensated for it by tackling the situation the right way.