The topic of this video is when is the best time to get medical treatment after a car accident? So being a Saint Petersburg personal injury attorney, we have questions from clients day in and day out who are involved in a car accident and unsure basically who they should see and when they should see someone. So they may be in an accident, they think they’re fine, maybe there’s some property damage of a few thousand dollars. They don’t feel anything that day. They wake up the next morning, there’s a lot of soreness there hurt. And so they wait a day or two, uh, hoping that the injury will heal and it’s not. And then they think to themselves, okay, something’s wrong here. I need to talk to someone. And that’s when they call us. And by that point, several days or even a week or over a week has gone by and it creates an issue with the car accident claim.
So the purpose of this video is basically to explain what the law is about when you need to seek medical treatment. And then also what the best or preferred, um, timeframe is to see someone. So let’s talk about the law first. So in Florida, there is a rule for your pip, your no-fault insurance with which every insured driver in Florida is required to have up to $10,000 worth of personal injury protection or no-fault benefits. The law says you have to see someone with an emergency medical condition receive treatment basically within the 14 days. So, and if you do not, then there is a sliding scale. Basically, you can, uh, uh, potentially waive all, all, all of your benefits, which is a real problem. But from an insurance perspective, what I wanted to make clear is that if you make a claim for bodily injuries arising out of the accident, so something more than just getting the medical care through your own pip insurance.
So either making a claim against the driver that caused the car accident or against your own uninsured motorist coverage, what you’ll need to do is to get medical treatment as soon as possible after the accident, even if it’s a checkup. Even if you go in and say, hey look, I woke up and I’ve got back or neck soreness. Uh, I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t something more serious. So be it. At least that documents it, it locks it in that you were complaining of the problem shortly after the accident, if not immediately after the accident. Because if you wait a, an extended period of time, I can guarantee you that the insurance company that you are making the claim against for some type of monetary damages is going to come back and say, oh, this person waited nine days to see someone, or this person waited a whole week. And they think to themselves and what they use as rationales, how badly could you really have been hurt. So they use that against us day in and day out. So my advice is see somebody within the 14 days. Absolutely. And as soon as soon after the accident as is possible. So hopefully that answers the question about when you should be seeing someone as far as your medical treatment after a car accident.
*The above has been transcribed by a third party service and has not been checked for accuracy.
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