Do This Right After a Car Accident for Success
If You’ve Been in a Car Accident Recently, What You Do in the Next Few Days Can Make or Break Your Case…
After an accident you may be confused about what to do. That’s natural since most people aren’t involved in accidents very often.
What you do in the first few days following your accident are crucial to the success of your case. If you mess up early on, it can come back to bite you in the butt later.
What You Should Have Done By Now… and If Not What You Need to Do Right Now
I’m going to assume that you’ve already traded information with the responsible party you’ve taken a picture of their driver’s license, a picture of their insurance ID and hopefully some pictures of both the vehicles involved in the accident and the damage incurred.
Also, hopefully you were able to create a police report at the scene. This isn’t always the case because often city police do not like to make traffic collision reports. It’s best if you can tell the police department that our injuries and damage the vehicles and that you’ll wait for an officer to come take a report. If you’re on a freeway the California highway patrol 99% of the time will create a report.
The Steps to Do Next to Help Your Case
Contact Your Auto Insurance Company
Contact your own auto insurance company and let them know that you were involved in an accident. Give them the details of how the accident happened and the information for the other driver.
Ask your insurance company if you have medical payments coverage and uninsured motorist coverage. Even though the accident may not be your fault, you may still need to use your own auto insurance to help you through your case. Any coverage that you use in an accident that is not your fault cannot count against your driving record or cause your rates to go up in California.
Contact the Other Party’s Auto Insurance Company
You want to contact the other persons’ insurance company. You need to let them know as briefly as possible what happened in the accident. Be very black-and-white about the information you give to them. If they ask you if you were hurt, make sure to tell them that you don’t feel right and you’re going to go see a doctor. Even if you have minimal pain, this step is crucial.
Make an Appointment with a Car Accident Chiropractor
Your next call is getting an appointment with a car accident injury, chiropractor. Almost all chiropractors accept car accident cases, but very few are actual specialists in car accident injuries. So make sure you do some research here.
It’s important to be evaluated by the doctor as soon as possible after the accident. A delay of more than a few days can be costly to you and your case.
In most cases, you will not have to pay upfront for any treatment, so don’t worry about that. between your auto insurance, your health insurance, and the other parties insurance as long as the accident was the other party’s fault, your treatment will be taken care of without out-of-pocket expense.
I have seen many times where people have delayed seeking medical care and that has cost them.
Jennifer was a patient who was involved in an accident on a Friday night. She had some mild aches and pains on Friday, but through the weekend became more and more stiff. A friend of hers referred her to me and she called on a Monday and made an appointment for that same day. She began care and was eventually released with her condition taken care of. After, she negotiated a nice settlement with the insurance company without much work.
Let’s contrast that with Bill. He was involved in an accident and wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t have health insurance and only had liability insurance on his vehicle. Also he thought he couldn’t afford to see a doctor. He also thought the mild aches and pains he was feeling would eventually go away. After a couple months he began to have severe headaches and had difficulty at work. His neck became increasingly stiff, and he had back pain which prevented him from exercising and doing household chores. Luckily, he ran into a former patient of mine who recommended me to him. By the time he came in, it had been four months since the date of his accident.
We proceeded with treatment and eventually got him stabilized. His time of treatment was slightly longer than Jennifer‘s because by delaying care, he allowed scar tissue to begin to form around the joints and muscles of his spine. His bills were also slightly higher due to increased time of treatment. When it came time to settlement, it was an uphill battle. He eventually reached a decent settlement, but it was about half of what Jennifer recovered. The reason was because the insurance company did not believe he was really injured because he had waited many months before seeking care.
I understand you can have legitimate reasons for not seeking care, but only if you do not know how the system works. The insurance company uses that against you.
The take away from these two stories is, get seen by a car accident injury specialist as soon as you can after an accident.
A delay in treatment is only one of many factors that insurance companies try to use against naïve victims to short their claims. By seeing a car accident injury specialist, you can negate any games the insurance company can try to use against you.
To learn more about the common mistakes people make after an accident go to DrBarryMarks.com and download your free report.
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