The question was asked, does it matter when you first see a doctor after a car accident? So this question comes up day in and day out with our car accident cases, motorcycle cases, and personal injury cases. So first off, Florida has the no-fault system, so you have to seek emergency medical care within 14 days from the date of the accident in order to qualify for your pip coverage. But that issue aside, what we’re really talking about is how does a delight in treatment affect the value of your case? So from an insurance perspective, if you don’t go to the hospital or an urgent care the day of or shortly after the accident insurance company is going to assume that you were not seriously injured. And the longer that you go after the accident without seeing a doctor, the lower value that they give your case. So it is imperative if you have any type of issue soreness, you wake up the next morning, your back or your neck, your neck is stiff to go at least to an urgent care center and get checked out.
Not only will that trigger your PIP coverage, but it also will check that box for the insurance company for their determination that you did sustain an injury. Now the next issue is about gaps in treatment. So once you’ve started, once you perhaps you’ve hired a personal injury lawyer, perhaps you’ve started treatment with a chiropractor, a physical therapist, if you have gaps in treatment. In other words, I don’t know, maybe you get sick for a couple of weeks, you’d go on vacation, maybe you’re feeling a little better and you take off for a few weeks and then you start back up. You again will be devalued by the insurance company. So those gaps in treatment, every time you have a gap, it hurts your case. That’s why, again, it’s imperative to fall through on your treatment obligations no matter what the time commitments are. Now the last issue in terms of treatment and timing for a case is how long it takes to get a case settled or resolved after you have finished your treatment.
So sort of the golden rule of, again, car accidents, motorcycle accidents, personal injury cases, you name it. Once your treatment ends, your case becomes less valuable every single day it drops in value. So that’s why it’s imperative after you finished treatment to get your case out for a demand and try to get the case settled. Because you know, sort of the, the thought process on it from the insurance perspective is once you’re done treating your case is basically capped at a value. And unless there’s a threat out there that you’re going to get an injection or surgery, then they know generally, okay, there’s really no more risk for us to go out and settle this case quickly because the longer the person goes just trying to get the case settled, it will then prove that no future medical care is necessary and the case will be devalued accordingly. So those are all the different steps to keep in mind, the different issues that come up in terms of gaps, delays in treatment, and then, um, how long it takes essentially at the end of the day to resolve a case.
*The above has been transcribed by a third party service and has not been checked for accuracy.
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