Navigating Personal Injury

Injury is an unfortunate fact in life.  When it happens to you, or your family or friends, many important issues arise.  First and foremost is the need to get good medical care.  But so many other issues arise.  For example:

• Was the injury work related?
• Was the injury through the fault of another? 
• If the injury was the fault of someone else, should you ask your health insurance provider to pay for your bills or should you wait until the at-fault person pays your bills? 
• What should you do to preserve the evidence of the injury, the injury scene, or the thing that caused the injury? 
• If the injury involved a vehicle, does auto insurance come into play?  If so, what are the types of coverages that may apply?
• How do you deal with the medical providers who begin calling you about medical bills that have not been paid. 
• If an insurance company is handling your case, what should you do when you and the insurance company disagree on in issue? 

Get Advice Promptly

Talk to an attorney early in the process and inform yourself on the issues you will likely face.  Frequently, when I talk to people who are not severely injured, I will tell them how to handle the case themselves.  If the injury is more severe, the injured person should probably get an attorney on their side, to protect their interests.

Preserve the Evidence Quickly

This is important because evidence changes and can get away forever.  So, get your camera and shoot photos or videos of everything - the people, the injuries, the vehicles, the injury scene, etc.  Get the names, addresses and phone numbers of any witnesses to the injury.

Use your health insurance in non-work related injuries

Often when people are injured by others, they do not want to use their health insurance to cover their medical bills.  They want the at-fault party to pay their bills.  This is not a good idea, as it may take a long while before the at-fault party pays your bills. The medical provider will likely want to get paid long before you get paid by the at-fault party.  When your health insurance pays your bill, it will likely have the right to get paid back when you collect from the at-fault driver.  You have paid for the health insurance coverage.  Use it. 

For work related injury, the employer or their workers compensation insurance carriers will likely be paying for the medical treatment.