What Factors Determine The Viability Of A Personal Injury Claim?

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Many times in car crash cases there is not a question of who is at fault, at least in dealings with the insurance company. However, what always has to be part of the equation is whether the person has a provable injury. There’s an enormous amount of variation in that question. Provable injury sounds like it should be more objective than it is and is another area where clients become frustrated or exasperated because they’re being challenged.

Every day, our attorneys talk to clients that have back, knee, or shoulder injuries. What we sometimes have to explain is that we need to have is medical evidence to prove the injury. There is a large knowledge gap between some personal injury attorneys regarding the medical aspects of personal injury claims. With the years of experience and medical research the firm of Wells, Purcell & Kraatz, has done, there are not many injuries we haven’t seen before or don’t have some baseline knowledge of. Many times, to prove an injury claim, clients require help to obtain the medical evidence that is needed.

Our firm does not just send clients to a doctor who has an office in the down the street. We will tell the client that even though they had an MRI that was normal, for example, they still need to have a credible study done to confirm the back pain. Sometimes if people don’t have that in a case, it’s not as viable as it would be otherwise.

How Important Is Following the Doctor’s Orders in a Personal Injury Claim?

We have seen cases where a client told an adjustor that even though they were in pain, they didn’t want to go to the doctor because they didn’t have the money for the co-pay. Thus, he or she went weeks without medical care immediately after the injury. We call those “gap cases” because that’s what the insurance companies call them. This can be deadly to the case, depending upon what the real diagnosis is of the injury turns out to be. If you have a broken arm and you don’t go to the hospital for two weeks, it’s probably not insurmountable. However, if your back hurts and you don’t go for weeks, chances are the case will compromise.

A jury can’t connect the dots and relate a back injury or a neck injury to trauma without having a timeline. Juries get lost and doctors look silly when they say that back pain or an MRI study is related to something that happened a month before if there was no medical report of the injury. It’s very difficult to overcome.

All cases are different but any time there is a gap in treatment of more than 10 to 14 days, it’s a red flag and it is something that our attorneys are going to talk with the client about immediately. It can even affect the decision on whether or not our firm will take the case.

How Important Are Evidence And Witnesses In A Personal Injury Claim?

The evidence controls the outcome of the case. Evidence related to the provability of the injury or the fault of the driver that hits someone is crucial. If you don’t have that, you don’t have a case. Evidence can come from medical experts and records, but also from your friends and family members that have seen the changes the injury caused in your life can be very important. People that you work with can explain how you can’t work the way you did before and are also very important. The evidence in a personal injury claim is what determines its viability.

For more information on Viability of a Personal Injury Claim, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (817) 335-5525 today.