It is quite amazing how many people that receive a personal injury in Pennsylvania and fail to fully document the injuries they sustained. It does not matter whether you have hired a lawyer and you are planning to sue for damages or you are trying to negotiate a reasonable settlement with the insurance company, nothing supports your position more than facts. The more factual date you have the better are your chances of receiving a satisfactory settlement. There are some important things that you should do to ensure that the injuries you sustain are fully and properly documented.
Immediate medical attention is the first order of priority:
If you suffer any personal injury in Pennsylvania that you believe was caused by someone else’s negligent action then the first thing you must do is seek medical attention. This move is two-fold in importance; number one priority of course is your health but equally important is the fact that your injury and the actions taken by medical personnel will be properly documented immediately after the injury occurred. Your physical and emotional condition immediately following the event is the base-line for your condition should there ever is a case. If you should end up in court and you cannot support your assertions with a supporting statement from a physician then you really have no way of proving exactly what your condition was after the event that caused your injury took place.
Ensure that you have copies of all the records from the attending physicians and the hospital. Make sure that you have copies of the initial diagnosis as well as test results. The pre-treatment report will prove to be a valuable document in the event you have to sue for damages.
Save everything:
Even what appears to be an insignificant injury can result in a mountain of paperwork, save it all. There will be questionnaires from the insurance company involved, doctor’s bills, hospital bills and receipts for prescription drugs. Do not get rid of anything, create a file and save every document and keep a running tally of the costs as your treatment progresses. This will serve two purposes; it creates a narrative of your injury and the treatment you received and it also tracks all expenses that you had to pay or were associated with your personal injury in Pennsylvania.
Take plenty of pictures of the injuries you received and how the appearance changed over time. Have someone take pictures of your injuries immediately after the incident, time stamp all the photos and save them as digital images as well as hard copies. Nothing helps better than pictures when trying to explain the extent of your injuries to a jury, written records are great but when they are backed up by photo’s they are even a more powerful tool.
