Personal Injury Claim
Over the years, our team of Houston personal injury lawyers at Houston Injury Lawyers, PLLC, has handled many injury claims. Diagnosis, treatment, and documentation are the essential ingredients in the recipe for what an individual will eventually receive as financial recovery.
Why is a diagnosis so important?
To see (a doctor) or not to see (a doctor). That is the question! Let’s think about it like an insurance company (which is usually who pays most personal injury lawsuits and settlements). Their goal will always be to pay you as little as possible. Documented diagnosis is one way to show the adjusters at the insurance company and even the jurors that the accident. And of an illness, injury, or even death, extraordinary evidence. To say you had injuries and no evidence of them, and quite another to have proof through a diagnosis. That an injury 1) exists and 2) resulted from the accident or incident.
Victim of Accident!
The first part of the equation is having evidence of the injury. The second aspect is what lawyers refer to as “causation.” Let’s look at this by way of a hypothetical situation:
The victim was in a vehicle accident where a truck traveling 40 miles an hour failed to stop at an intersection. The Victim has been in a lot of pain since the accident. The Victim’s diagnosis is a herniated cervical disc.
If the Victim had played football in high school and college, in a 10-year-old medical chart, there was a doctor’s note about a suspected cervical disc herniation. Would that make it more difficult or less complicated to show his injury was caused by accident? Suppose the Victim was a gymnast who competed in a competition just a week ago and did not have any history of neck pain or complaints. Would that make it more or less difficult to show that the injury was caused by accident?
As one can see, having a diagnosis is essential, as it shows that the illness, injury, or death happened due to the accident or incident – and not because of something else.
Timing is Important
The other key aspect is timing. Receiving a diagnosis immediately following an accident or incident is in many ways more valuable than waiting six weeks to see a doctor and receive a diagnosis. Insurance companies love nothing more than telling that some other intervening event during that six weeks caused illness, injury, or death. It absolutely can impact the value of a case.
Routine Physical
Three months later, during a routine physical, it was found he had an electrical issue with his heart. He had been T-Boned at 40 mph in his driver’s door. And his side curtain airbag had gone off right into his ribcage, causing severe rib pain with no breaks.
Was the electrical issue in his heart caused by an accident?
Or was it caused by something else that happened during that three months, like the fall he took down the stairs at his house two months after the accident that broke two ribs?
So how much is my case worth?
Unfortunately, there is never really any way to know what a case is worth. And if any Houston personal injury lawyers ever tell you a number at the outset of a case – you should find another lawyer. The reality is that it is a complex calculation that takes time to develop based on facts, circumstances, medical records, billing records, treatment history, rehabilitation and therapy, time lost from work, age, earning capacity, and the list goes on and on. Reach out to a team of experienced Houston personal lawyers, like the lawyers at Houston Injury Lawyers, for a free consultation today. We don’t recover until you recover.
