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One of the most common questions we get asked (go figure) is: What do I do if I’m injured in a car accident? What’s my first step? The first and most important thing you should do is seek professional help. That means go to the doctor! A lot of people want to be tough, so they go home, ice it, and take it easy for a few weeks. Don’t do that! It is imperative to go to a professional for several reasons:
First, they’re going to document your injuries. They’re going to take notes, like the date you came, with what injuries. We have to submit those documents to the car insurance to help pay for your medical bills.
Secondly, if you wait for a substantial amount of time, the insurance company won’t pay your bills. They say something like, if you were actually injured, you would have gone to the hospital the day after the accident, instead of waiting three weeks. So, if you’re hurt, do not wait. Get in and seek medical treatment as soon as possible.
It’s also important to find the right doctors. Any doctor can see you for a headache. Most any doctor could see you for some different injuries in your neck and prescribe some medicine. But there is a big difference between a doctor who will see you and give you some Tylenol, versus a doctor who will make the kind of notes that the car insurance will actually accept as reasonable and necessary. So it’s very important to find the right doctors. The best way to find these doctors is to ask around, ask your friends, ask anyone else who has been in a car accident, and what their experience was with that doctor.
Another really good thing (which we obviously highly recommend) is to call a personal injury attorney. We deal with doctors all day. We know if this doctor does things that the insurance likes, and maybe this doctor doesn’t. We won’t tell you that you have to see a certain doctor, but we can definitely recommend a list of doctors who are really good with car accidents. You need to be consistent with your treatment as well. If the doctor recommends coming to the doctor three times a week for two weeks, make sure you come to those appointments. If you don’t, the insurance will see those notes, see that you’re skipping appointments, and then they can justify that you must not be hurt bad enough to even go to the doctor when you’re supposed to. So, make sure you’re consistent with that. Lastly, do not settle your case if you’re still hurting. Do not settle too early. I find this to be one of the biggest problems I deal with. If you’re still hurting, once you sign that paper and settle the case, the case is over. The insurance does not have to pay
You need to be consistent with your treatment as well. If the doctor recommends coming to the doctor three times a week for two weeks, make sure you come to those appointments. If you don’t, the insurance will see that you’re skipping appointments, and then they can say that you must not be injured bad enough to even go to the doctor when you’re supposed to. So, make sure you’re consistent.
Lastly, do not settle your case if you’re still hurting. I find this to be one of the biggest problems I deal with. If you’re still hurting, once you sign that paper and settle the case, the case is over. The insurance does not have to pay any more medical bills. So just be very careful to not sign any documents until you are confident and positive that you’ve recovered from this accident.
If you have any questions at all, if you’re hurting and it’s not getting better, or you don’t know which doctors to use, we strongly recommend that you contact a personal injury attorney. That’s what we do all day. We help people like you who have been in an accident get into the right doctors and make sure you get better. Give us a call, we’re happy to help!
If you have more questions, please contact us! If you found this information helpful, please download our free Car Accident Crash Book.
