Sarasota Injury Law Blog

If I am in a car accident or slip and fall accident, should I see a doctor immediately?

Victims of a Sarasota, Bradenton, Palmetto, Lakewood Ranch, or Venice car, truck, motorcycle or auto accident should immediately seek medical treatment following any injury even if they initially think the injury is minor. This is one of the insurance industry’s favorite reasons to deny your claim: “If you were really hurt, you would have gone to the emergency room or at the very least seen a doctor right away.””You must not have been hurt very bad since you waited so long to seek medical care”. They will plant the seed that either the injured party is trying to manufacture a claim after the fact or that the injured party’s attorney is behind all this. To document medical proof of an injury, at least when the injury is not open and obvious, one needs a medical exam in order to build a case. If you are injured, you need to be seen by and treated by a doctor; not only to determine the nature and extent of your injuries, but also to have in writing a medical report from a doctor which documents the history of your accident and injury.

The medical report is the first step in a long road to support your claim against the at fault party. Hopefully, the defendant will be insured by an insurance company. The insurance company has the right to request that you be seen by its own medical doctor for a medical examination. The insurance company can choose any doctor to conduct this examination. This examination is called an Independent Medical Examination. Most insurance companies maintain a list of conservative doctors that they hire to perform medical exams and tests on injured claimants. Theoretically this is to assist the insurance company in verifying or confirming the nature and extent of the victim’s injury. But more often than not, it is simply a means to defeat a claim by using a doctor that is a “hired gun” and these doctors find nothing wrong with all but the most obvious injuries. This is why it is so important that an injured victim see his or her own doctor immediately after an accident. Most, by not all, significant injuries always involve the ambulance trip to the hospital ER and thus the first medical documentation of injury happens automatically and immediately. Injury lawyers will gladly make recommendations or referrals to you for future care, and prefer that you are seen and treated by a doctor familiar with the legal process in injury claims and litigation, and one that is not adverse in any way to working with your lawyer. After all, the doctor puts your life back together after injury from a physical standpoint, while lawyers put your life back together from a financial standpoint.

During any medical exams, whether your own doctor or the insurance company doctor, be sure to tell the doctor of every body part that hurts, even if minor, in case it gets worse over time. Failure to seek immediate and prompt medical care or to mention all body parts injured, are two of the red flags insurance companies and defense lawyers use to fight claims.

So if you have been injured in an accident or you know someone that has been injured, be sure to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible, and take advantage of the free consult with Sarasota Auto Accident Attorney that our firm offers to victims of auto accidents, slip and fall accidents, or any other personal injury matter.

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