If you’re lucky, being injured in a car accident is only going to change your life temporarily. Calling police to the scene to investigate the crash is fundamental. Beyond that, seeking immediate treatment for your injuries is critical. That’s why paramedics should be dispatched to the scene too. They can assess and stabilize you, and then, they can transport you to the nearest emergency room for further evaluation. The records of the paramedics and emergency room personnel are going to be critical in proving that you were indeed injured in your accident, and the injuries were the direct and proximate result of your accident.
1. Delay in Treatment
If an insurer sees a delay of three or four days or even a week after an accident, it’s going to raise questions about being injured as seriously as you claim. Those questions are going to impact your credibility as a witness in your own case. Immediate professional documentation of complaints of pain, objective symptoms of injuries and treatment for them are going to prevent this issue from arising. If the opposing adjuster thinks that he or she can get away with it, an argument might even be raised that you were actually injured somewhere else in a different way.
2. Gaps in Treatment
If you sought immediate treatment for your injuries, and they were documented by health care professionals, the opposing insurer will then look for gaps in treatment. These are time periods when you might miss one or more appointments with your health care providers. Your reasons for treatment gaps might seem logical, and you might not think that they will hurt your case. The opposing insurer’s adjuster will use every argument possible to exploit those gaps to attack your credibility. Don’t be surprised when the adjuster argues that if you were indeed injured in your accident, gaps in treatment raise questions as to whether you were malingering. In the alternative, he or she might also argue that by virtue of the gaps, you inhibited your ability to recover from your injuries.
After being injured in any accident in or around Phoenix, call 911. Have both police and paramedics dispatched to the scene of your accident. Get examined and treated in an emergency room right away. At your first opportunity after that, contact our Personal Injury Attorneys in AZ to arrange for a free consultation and case review. We’ll answer your questions and advise you of all of the legal alternatives that are available for you.