5 Personal Injury Mistakes You Must Be Wary About

Injuries, whether intentional or not, could happen to anyone regardless of time and place. Some personal injuries cause minor bodily damages, while many injuries lead to trips to the emergency room or worse, deaths.

Back in 2018, accidents and unintentional injuries ranked third among the leading causes of death in the US with six percent of all deaths in the country.

Some 167,127 people died as a result of unintentional injuries across the US that year, which included poisoning, falls, and motor vehicle accidents. Many of the fatalities were elderly people who are inherently vulnerable due to age and health or psychological conditions.

Many of these incidents have led to bitter court battles between victims and parties that have caused the injuries. Such legal issues affect not only the parties involved but their respective families and circle of loved ones as well. With these facts, you need to know everything about personal injuries and what you should avoid when faced with one.

Here are five personal injury pitfalls that you must watch out for and dodge no matter what happens:

Letting your shock get the best of you

Shock is a normal reaction to any sudden and damaging event such as an accident. You can’t fault yourself if you’ll feel it immediately following an accident that caused injuries to you or anyone with you. However, letting that initial shock paralyze you completely is something that you must be mentally prepared for.

By quickly regaining your wits and overpowering your shock, you’ll have the presence of mind to take note of everything that’s happening in the accident site. You’ll have the alertness to take photos or video of the impact site, your injuries, and whatever damages to property you sustained.

You’ll also have the nerves to call for help and to alert your relatives or someone you trust to come over to the site and help you in any way possible.

Not calling your attorney immediately

Once you’ve alerted the authorities and informed a relative or friend about your situation, you should then quickly call your attorney. Among the worst things you could do in such a scenario is to allow your attorney to be out of the loop.

Preferably, you should have a reliable personal injury attorney in mind right now than later. This will ensure that you’ll get proper advice and assistance if you’ll ever figure in an accident that caused you some bodily injuries.

Remember that such incidents would most likely lead to a court case, so you must call your lawyer once you’re certain that both medical help and police investigators are on their way to your site.

Posting accident-related details on social media

Sure, it’s tempting to snap photos of yourself following the accident and then posting them on your social media accounts to let your friends and relative know about it. Maybe it is to let them know that you’re okay, or maybe you’re thinking that you can use them later when your case is underway.

Well, whatever your reason maybe, this is something you must never do. Details about your accident such as photos or video clips posted on social media could backfire once the other party got wind of them and use them against you. The opposing party may claim that you’re doing a trial by publicity and could thus weaken your case no matter how strong it is.

So, do yourself a favor and keep those photos and videos on your phone and use them in court, instead of posting them on social media for the world to see.

Ignoring doctor’s orders

If your attending physician told you to complete a series of tests and to take some medication to help you recover quickly, ignoring them instead could be your undoing.

Once your case goes to trial, your opposition could use your action against you by painting you as an unwilling party. If you’ll be portrayed as not having concern for your own welfare, why should the court accord you the protection of the law?

As such, be sure to heed everything that your doctor tells you to do, especially when it’s relevant to your immediate recovery and personal health and safety.

Signing anything without consulting your lawyer

Whether following the accident or while your case is being prepared for trial, signing anything coming from the other party’s lawyer is something you must never do no matter how tempting the terms may be or how nicely you were approached.

Keep in mind that your signature on any legal document could be used against you and you may be unwittingly signing away your rights. Let your lawyer know about the document and have him or her read it to ensure that you won’t be in legal hot water eventually.

By avoiding these five pitfalls, you can expect a great chance of winning your personal injury case should you decide to push through with it.