Legal Complications That Arise From Failure To Get Immediate Medical Attention

During the days before introduction of imaging techniques, insurers had to accept the fact that soft tissue injuries would not show up in an x-ray. Today, though insurance companies seem to feel justified in asking that imaging studies of an accident victim get carried out in the hours that follow a given collision.

Later, a medical expert might testify to the fact that the full extent of the victim’s injury could not be noted during that early moment in time. Still, the insurance company would want to have it on record that the victim had demonstrated some belief that he or she had sustained such an injury. Insurers like to have a written record of how a given victim felt, when responding to the accident-caused jolting.

Two arguments that can be made in absence of sufficient medical records

If the insurance company sees that there are no medical records for the day of the accident, then it might conclude that no one suffered any serious injuries. Naturally, medical experts know that not all serious injuries trigger the appearance of visible symptoms right away. Unfortunately, insurers do not take into consideration the opinions of medical experts.

Sometimes, the absence of medical records pushes an insurer to arrive at a different conclusion. Occasionally, an insurer will suggest that the non-existent medical records would have served as proof that the victim had suffered only a minor injury. Then the insurance company would go on to state that the severity of the victim’s condition had increased, due to the victim’s failure to get immediate help at a medical facility.

How a lawyer’s help works to challenge the above arguments

If a victim had sustained a soft tissue injury and had failed to see a doctor immediately for that reason, the lawyer can consult with a medical expert. Using statistics furnished by that expert, the Personal Injury Lawyer in Stouffville can present a strong counter argument to the charge that the victim had not been harmed during the course of the collision. That is why someone that has suffered a condition similar to a concussion should hire a lawyer.

A lawyer’s help can also prove helpful, if an insurance company insists that the victim made the injury worse by not seeing a doctor on the day of the collision. If the victim had not done any hard physical tasks, then a short delay should not have aggravated the largely silent condition. Conditions that result from harm to soft tissues rarely produce noticeable symptoms within hours of a harmful accident.

If there was a delay in getting imaging results to a client’s doctor, then an injury lawyer could account for the delay. That is another example of a lawyer’s help.