What Medical Issues Mean To Your Personal Injury Claim
Many accident victims underestimate the effect medical treatment and the associated costs have on their personal injury case. The amount of money you can be paid is tied, in many cases, to the total of your medical expenses as a result of your injury. If the other driver caused the accident, you might be entitled to thousands of dollars in payment. Read on to find out why medical issues are so important to your case and why.
How Medical Issues Play a Role
Medical treatment costs are not just important but vital. If you don't have any medical costs, that probably means that you either didn't seek treatment or that you were not injured badly enough to be treated. When it comes to car accidents, no injuries and no medical treatment mean no compensation. That's why accident victims must go to the emergency room or see their doctor as soon as they can. Even minor injuries can get worse over time. Don't wait, but if you have waited, go as soon as you can. Let the doctor know about the accident and begin keeping up with all related insurance and medical treatment paperwork.
Failure to Mitigate
You want to avoid the above issue at all costs. Failure to mitigate means that your medical condition has been made worse by your failure to get medical care and it can sink your personal injury case. The at-fault driver's insurer may refuse to pay you what you deserve if there is a time gap between the accident and your medical treatment. It's best to get checked right after the accident and then monitor your health carefully and return for a follow-up visit if you notice symptoms.
Pain and Suffering
The biggest impact of medical treatment and the cost of it surrounds pain and suffering. This legal term refers to the general discomfort you experienced and will continue to experience when dealing with an accident. Insurers have various ways of dealing with payments for pain and suffering but most of them use a method that's based on your medical treatment costs. The greater your medical costs, the higher your pain and suffering award could be. That is because the dollar total of your medical expenses can be multiplied by a factor between 1.5 and 5 or more to arrive at the pain and suffering payment. There are several ways to calculate pain and suffering so speak to your personal injury lawyer to learn more.
For more information, reach out to a local personal injury lawyer.