How Quickly you Seek Medical Treatment – The urgency with which you seek medical treatment is paramount in determining the amount of your compensation. The world is full of people who sue as an afterthought, and a judge will sniff out a frivolous lawsuit faster than you can believe. If you don’t do seek treatment promptly, you had better resign yourself to a nuisance settlement. i.e., a few paltry bills to get you to pipe down.
The Amount of Times you Seek Medical Treatment – The number of visits does not impact the total claim amount so much as the nature of each visit. Your insurance might demand a small copay each time and if the check-in is mostly procedural, it won’t impact your compensation too much. Be wary of repeatedly seeking medical treatment with the intent of driving up your claim cost. Be especially wary of annoying your doctor or medical provider, or making them think your symptoms are imagined. This is called malingering and there is little that medical service providers hate more. Hospital policy forces providers to give treatment even when a patient is deemed malingering because of the off-chance the symptoms are real. But most doctors know the difference and their aggravation won’t help you in a courtroom.
The Gross Cost of your Medical Bills – Generally, any claim of bodily injury is determined by looking at the medical bills. Certainly there are many more factors to consider, such as pain and loss, as well as psychological damage, but the easiest to quantify are the bills. That is because they can be evidenced immediately. It also makes sense to seek several times more than the gross bill amount because, after the settlement is awarded, you won’t be entitled to anymore funds; Thus your compensation should include cost of future, medical expenses as well.
Obtaining a Medical Report – These medical reports are important pieces of evidence in an accident claim. Although your doctor will most likely have extensive experience compiling them, it is still important to discuss this issue with him or her. The report should detail the nature of your injury and the way in which you recovered. Especially poignant is the doctor’s opinion on long-term recovery and costs associated there with. If, for example, you seem to have fully recovered from a wrist injury but might have carpal tunnel later in life, you should be duly compensated now. Also, though this is somewhat subjective, the doctor should try to make an assessment of how the injury will impact the rest of your life.
Property Damage – Property damage is a blanket term that can apply to a number of injury scenarios: In a car accident case, it is usually the value of the car plus costs for a rental. In an animal injury, it might be the cost of destroyed clothing or jewelry. In a defective product case, it would be the cost of the product plus any costs the improper operation of the product caused. For example, if you purchased framing lumber that was too green, and the moisture went on to rot your drywall, which eventually caused a roofing issue, you might be compensated for both the cost of framing and roofing.
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