Some accident victims put up with ongoing pain, and do not realize that each of them has suffered the effects of a permanent medical condition. In fact, not every victim gets told how to watch for signs of chronic pain. Any chronic pains will persist for no less than 3 to 6 months after all other injuries have healed. In fact, there are times when such pains persist for close to one year.
Steps you can use to win a claim for chronic pain
Do not wait until it becomes obvious that a painful sensation has refused to go away. Save all of the medical records, including any papers that you got on the day of the injury-causing accident. Be sure to save every document that proves your willingness to go to any scheduled treatment. Create material that can supplement your medical record. Start a journal or diary. In that private booklet, write down how you felt each day, as you tried to perform those activities that you had enjoyed in the past. Focus on any time when pains interrupted a planned activity.
Encourage your lawyer to speak with medical experts. Lawyers must reach out to such experts, if their client has an ongoing medical condition, one that was diagnosed much earlier. The lawyer may need evidence that your specific condition did not contribute to your post-accident problems, especially those of a medical nature.
How to fight charges of imagined pain
In addition to expert witnesses, you should have some lay witnesses. Speak with friends, neighbors or co-workers that could attest to the fact that lingering pains have become a part of your life. Have them offer details about times when you had to change your plans, because painful sensations kept you from doing what you had hoped to do.
An injury lawyer in Edmonton for the defendant might discover an expert that will claim that you are making up your pain. That same attorney could not find a friend or relative that would deny the fact that you have had to plan your life around your recurring pains. Moreover, if your case goes to trial, members of the jury will identify with lay witnesses more easily than any of the available experts.
In addition, you may be able to mix mention of your pain with reminders of the times when you went to a scheduled treatment. Perhaps after you stepped out of the doctor’s office, you had to wait for the car or van that would take you home. Maybe you experienced some pain while you were waiting. Think about the setting at that point in time. No doubt you had to wait for a ride at a spot where you could not enjoy access to any type of headrest. Yet such a headrest belongs among those medical devices that tend to make whiplash pain a bit more tolerable.