To get the best resolution for a personal injury claim from a car accident, you have to think about pain and suffering. For a minor-to-moderate car accident, that can be difficult to prove as most injuries from these accidents are soft tissue injuries. With pain from injuries that you can’t see, how do you get an insurance company to pay you a just and fair settlement?
1. Do Not Accept A Quick Settlement
The insurance company may pressure you to accept its offer quickly before you realize the extent of your injuries. Many people feel fine right after a wreck, but after a few days or weeks have passed, pain and discomfort from an accident can manifest. It’s best to have a medical evaluation at the time of the auto accident and monitor how you feel over some time before accepting an offer from an insurance company.
2. Have a Treatment Plan
If you choose not to seek medical treatment for your injuries after your car accident, an insurance company will most likely not attach much value to your claim. Without medical records to document the pain and discomfort, insurance companies often will only have your word that you were injured–and typically that results in low evaluations and settlement offers.
To the insurance company, if you weren’t really in pain, you wouldn’t have gone to all that effort to relieve the pain. This is where an experienced personal injury attorney can help you. One of the most important parts of making your case to an insurance company and boosting the amount in your pocket is following a treatment plan. A good treatment plan will help you address the pain from your injuries while not racking up unnecessary medical bills.
3. Gather All of Your Evidence
When an insurance company is valuing the pain and suffering you experienced, it will review many types of documentation to support your claim. For any expenses caused by your car accident, be sure to keep track of documentation and turn them into your attorney–he or she will use such documentation to bolster your case. Documents could include:
- Medical records
- Medical bills
- Receipts for ride-shares to and from your doctor’s appointments
- Prescription records
- Photographs of your injuries
- Photographs of property damage to your vehicle/the vehicle in which you were traveling
- Rental car bills
- Documentation from your employer of any lost time from work
While there’s no one answer or calculator to determine the exact value of your pain and suffering, one thing you have to ask yourself is how severe is your injury? Most car crash cases we see do not result in hospitalizations or require major surgery. That means that minor-to-moderate car accidents typically don’t receive the 6-figure resolution that other cases with broken bones, nervous system damage, or emergency surgeries can receive.
Still though, if you have a less extensive injury, you can make a personal injury claim and have a great outcome–we help people in this situation every day!
M. Austin Jackson Attorney at Law specializes in helping victims and their families who have been injured in motor vehicle accidents. Since 2013, we have recovered millions for our personal injury clients. In the event of wrongful death, the family can seek compensation for the full value of the life that was lost, as well as damages to pay for funeral expenses, loss of companionship, and much more.