It's time to set goals for 2012. If you are one of the roughly ten percent of the population injured last year and that injury was caused by someone else's carelessness, putting your legal case on track for successful completion should be a major goal. Here are some things you can do to achieve it.
- Have patience. It takes time to get medical care to determine the extent of injuries, which are permanent, and how they will affect your future. It also takes time for your attorney to complete the investigation. That includes ordering all of your medical records and bills.
- Tell your attorney about all injuries and medical problems both before and after the accident. Good cases can be destroyed if this information is concealed or forgotten. Insurance companies use an indexing system that will discover injuries and claims.
- When you visit the doctor treating you for an injury, list all the problems you are having. If those complaints don't show up in the medical records, they don't and never will exist in the minds of insurance adjusters or jurors.
- Notify your attorney if you change doctors, go to the emergency room because of pain, are admitted to a hospital, or are discharged from care. All these things will influence the course of a case and will determine when the law firm should order medical records and bills.
- Keep a diary of your experiences following the accident or injury. Record important matters like pain levels, activities that you can't do or do only with pain because you have no other choice. Maybe you don't have help, so you have to work despite the pain. Describe it in your notes. Pain isn't always physical, so describe any emotional pain such as your feelings about not being able to lift your child.
- Finally, keep a list of out-of-pocket expenses.
Doing these things will put you well on the way to successfully resolving your injury case. I'll add to this list next week.
