Common Mistakes Accident Victims Make

Many times after an accident where someone is injured, they will try to handle things themselves, instead of getting an injury attorney. That kind of self-help often leads to mistakes that can jeopardize their ability to recover damages for their injuries. Although we would hope that if you are injured, you will get legal help, here is a checklist of common mistakes that people make when they choose to represent themselves after an accident.

1. Settling the case too early – After an accident, the other side will often make offers that sound tempting to you. They may offer to pay for a medical bill. They may offer you what sounds like a reasonable sum of money, quickly after an accident. They sound like they care. What they are really trying to do is lure you into signing a quick settlement, thus waiving your rights for an amount that is way less than what you deserve for your injuries.
2. Disposing of evidence – It can be easy to accidentally throw away evidence, without even trying to do so. You may throw away the shoes that you were wearing during your slip and fall. You may have your car repaired, before allowing insurance companies to inspect it. Many people who routinely wipe email accounts or videos or pictures on their phone, may be inadvertently disposing of what would be evidence in their case
3. Misusing social media – Your social media accounts are public information. People often, and unknowingly, put things on social media (pictures or comments) that can harm their case later on.
4. Refusing to get medical care – Some people refuse medical care outright, and don’t go to the doctor. Others will go to the doctor, but not carry out the treatment plans, therapies, or tests that the doctors recommend. Certainly, you don’t have to treat everything your doctor says as gospel and you have a right to make your own decisions as to your medical care—but ignoring doctor’s orders is never a good idea in a personal injury case.
5. Doing too much – You may try to carry 100 pounds of groceries up 3 flights of stairs, out of “toughness,” and to show that you’re not going to let injuries stop you. But others just see what you’re doing, and see that you seem to be pretty healthy. They can’t see your pain. Trying to do too much, before you are physically ready, can not only be a bad look, and undermine the severity of your injuries but can lead to further injury.
6. Ruining their credit – Medical bills can ruin your credit. But with good legal help, your doctors’ bills can be managed in such a way that they may not impact your credit. Sadly, many victims who (understandably) can’t pay their medical bills, end up with financial problems they didn’t need to have had they been represented by an attorney.

Don’t make these mistakes–get representation after your accident. Call the Knoxville personal injury lawyers at Fox Farley Willis & Burnette, PLLC, today.

Source:

consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-estimates-88-billion-in-medical-bills-on-credit-reports/