If you were recently injured in a slip and fall accident or a personal injury accident, you may have grounds to pursue compensation. Your ability to file a lawsuit depends on your state-specific statute of limitation laws and the kinds of injuries you sustained. As a victim, you will need to gather evidence that indicates that the other person is responsible for the accident overall. This still leaves the question, "How do I get compensation for whiplash?"
You might think that because whiplash can sometimes disappear after several weeks that there's no way to get compensation for whiplash. However, whiplash can be a serious soft tissue injury, and therefore you want to work with a legal team to evaluate whether or not you may be able to win damages in a settlement or a lawsuit.
The dedicated lawyers at Morgan & Morgan are here to help you figure out how to recover compensation for whiplash after a personal injury accident. Our lawyers believe that there are many different things you must do to increase your chances of recovering compensation for whiplash. Read on to learn more about the best ways to learn how to get compensation for whiplash.
Get Medical Attention
One of the best ways to figure out how to get compensation for whiplash is to get medical care immediately. This documents that you were concerned about your medical conditions, and with whiplash, it is extremely important to schedule follow-up appointments or to continue to communicate changes in your symptoms to your doctor. This is because most people do not experience whiplash injury symptoms immediately.
Whiplash can be thought of as both a shoulder injury and a neck injury, depending on your symptoms.
The shock of going through the accident and the time it takes your body to begin to feel how this has impacted you physically can take several hours. Even if you are not yet experiencing any signs of whiplash, it is still recommended that you seek medical attention right away. It can take days or hours to experience whiplash symptoms, but waiting too long to see your doctor can make it easy for insurance companies to argue that you did not have serious enough injuries to warrant immediate intervention and treatment for whiplash. If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, make sure you tell your doctor about them and schedule a follow-up appointment. Symptoms can include:
- Irritability
- Depression
- Disturbances in sleep
- Blurred vision
- Neck pain
- Ringing in the ears
- Pain moving your neck
- A limited range of motion in your neck
- Upper back, arm, or shoulder pain
- Numbness in your arms
Getting the Right Diagnosis and Treatment Plan Matters
The faster that you get medical attention, the more likely it is that you will be properly diagnosed and treated. Immediate treatment could also make it much easier for you to accelerate your recovery and prevent your injuries from getting any worse. This also shows judges, juries, and insurance companies that your injury was not caused by a pre-existing condition, is a legitimate claim, and is associated with the accident in question. It is often recommended that you keep personal notes of your appointments with your doctors in addition to copies of your medical records. Medical costs can be very overwhelming for someone trying to get treatment and move forward with their life, but it's so important to consider these and out-of-pocket expenses following a rear-end collision.
In these notes, you can write down what you said about your whiplash injuries, what you're experiencing at the time, any difficulties you have with carrying out daily activities or with going to work because of this circumstance, and any other concerns that you expressed with your doctor. If your whiplash injury treatment goes on for some period of time, it will be much harder to remember these details after the fact. This is why it is recommended that you keep good notes because it is likely that the insurance company and other people involved in your illegal claim will have questions down the road.
If you are curious about how to get compensation for whiplash, you need to document your medical injuries and continue to attend all follow-up appointments. You then must follow your treatment plan as prescribed by your doctor. Following this treatment plan and continuing to attend all of these appointments further demonstrates to juries, attorneys, and insurance companies that you have a serious injury.