You’ve just had a car accident and you’ve done your due diligence and completed the immediate next steps. What now? What other actions can you do to ensure fair compensation? Here are a few extra tips on what you should keep an eye on throughout the process. Strong Communication With Your Physician & Not Their Insurance Adjuster Be sure to see your physician regularly (at least every month or two), and follow doctor's orders. This helps your case in a couple of ways - the doctor will be able to keep records of your progress, and it shows a desire on your part to get better. Make sure you take the therapy and medication prescribed for your injuries, because if you don’t, you can bet that the other side will try to blame you for not recovering from those injuries as quickly as you should have!
If you get a call about your injuries from the other side’s insurance adjuster, don’t talk to them (other than to tell them to talk to your lawyer). As for your own insurance adjuster, you should keep a good line of communication open with them in order to recover all the benefits you are entitled under Section B auto insurance and any extended benefits you have. Your Section B benefits may include up to $400.00 per week in disability benefits for time off work, and up to $50,000 in medical expense coverage. Stay Connected to Your Legal Team Be sure to update your lawyers if you move or change jobs. Updating our office with new contact information and about any developing health issues is critical at this time – for example, if you start to notice any pain, locking or clicking in your jaw joints that were not present before the accident and these issues were not mentioned at the initial interview, contact your personal injury lawyers immediately. Keep a Diary and Your Receipts! We strongly recommend that you write a journal or open a file for yourself. In that file, retain copies of all correspondence relating to your personal injury claim, and MAINTAIN A DIARY outlining, on a regular basis, how your accident injuries are affecting your life. Your injuries will no doubt hamper you both physically and emotionally, and may impact your activities including at work, socially, recreationally, as well as housekeeping activities. If you document these in your diary, your personal injury lawyers will be able to take that information into account when determining fair compensation for your case. In your diary, be sure to maintain a record of the distances necessarily traveled for trips to and from caregivers (including doctors, physio, etc.). Keeping track of this travel, necessitated because of the defendant’s careless driving and your resulting injuries, will assist our firm in seeking reimbursement from the negligent motorist’s insurer for, say, 50 cents per km. Hopefully, most of your medical expenses will be covered by your Section B benefits or by any group plan or extended health care benefits you have, but be sure to keep receipts for any unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses for medication (prescription or over-the-counter), therapy, or anything else where money is coming out of your pocket because of this accident. Track Missing Work Days & Get a Letter Another great item to track in your diary is the time you are missing from work. If you are missing time and losing income because of this accident, you won’t be compensated for that income loss (or any other losses you suffer, for that matter) without proof. No documentation means no compensation! So at the earliest reasonable opportunity, make sure you get a letter from your boss detailing your time missed and net (take-home) pay lost. Document the Assistance You Need Performing Chores Please note that the courts have recognized that people should be compensated if their accident injuries cause them a “loss of homemaking capacity”. This can be measured by the total number of hours of extra housekeeping/yard maintenance assistance you require from helpers because of your accident injuries. So it will likely literally pay off if you document what the division of labor was like in your household before the accident and how it has changed after the accident, specifically in terms of what stuff you can no longer do around the house/yard because of your injuries, who is doing those chores now, and how many hours it is taking them, from the accident date right up until you are back to the normal pre-accident division of labor.
FINAL TIP: CONNECT WITH PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS THAT CAN CHAMPION YOU
At McCourt Law Offices, we can be your injury law firm, and we are dedicated to providing quality client service. Connect with our skilled and experienced team of legal counsel and support staff, and begin the process of recovering the financial compensation that you deserve for your injury claim.
We are confident that you and our firm will work together to achieve this important goal.