Three Common Mistakes That Central Bucks Car Accident Victims Make

If you’ve been hurt in a Doylestown car crash, you may have heard that the way you deal with your doctor can ruin your car accident injury case.   Three mistakes stand out as both the most common and the most easily avoided mistakes when dealing with a car accident doctor. These mistakes tend to be the results of personalities and could be avoided by the application of one simple rule, “Just the facts” or “Tell the truth.” But rather than leave it at that, here in more detail are three simple mistakes that can ruin your car accident case.

1. Don’t Overstate or Minimize Your Central Bucks Car Accident 

As Central Bucks auto injury doctors, we see it all the time. Some people (most, maybe?) can’t help but overlay their personality on the accident. Some people tend to minimize their car accident, “Oh, it wasn’t that bad.” Some people tend to make it more dramatic, “The impact made my car fly through the air!” Either approach is bad for you, your doctor and car accident case.

The best approach is to be factual and complete. This gives your doctor the best and most reliable information to use in his care and treatment of you. Factual and complete information is also the best thing for your accident case. Why?

Your description of the car accident will be written down by your doctor. That writing will follow your case from start to finish. If there’s anything in the medical records about your case that is inaccurate, it can be used against you to suggest either that the accident wasn’t as bad as it really was (because you minimized it when you talked to your doctor) or that you aren’t a very reliable historian (because you exaggerated it when you talked to your doctor).

Not only can the insurance company use your inaccurate statements against you but they can use those statements against your doctor. At some point your doctor may have to testify about your diagnosis and back pain treatment. That doctor may be asked to offer opinions about what injuries you suffered in the car accident. If you’ve given the doctor inaccurate information then your doctor’s opinions isn’t reliable because they’re based on inaccurate information.

2. Don’t Overstate or Understate Your Symptoms

Another common mistake we see is inaccurate or incomplete descriptions of symptoms. Some people minimize or omit symptoms. Some people overstate their symptoms. Neither approach is helpful.

If you understate your symptoms, obviously, those statements will be used against you later. If, for example, your broken leg really hurts and so does your back, but your back does not hurt as much as your leg, you should report both symptoms to your auto accident doctor. If you keep your back pain to yourself then your doctor can’t write it down and it can be suggested that your back pain wasn’t caused by your car accident.

Overstating your symptoms can be just as damaging. If you report to your doctor that you can’t stand for more than ten minutes or walk more than five blocks but what you mean is that it hurts to stand for a long time or walk for a long time, then tell your doctor that it hurts. But avoid making statements that are inaccurate or overblown.

3. Don’t Hide Your Medical History 

We’ve seen this many times where an injury victim had a similar injury ten years before. It got better. Now they’ve been in another accident and the same area that was injured before hurts again. They’re asked, “Did you ever injure this body part before?” Their answer? “Nope.”

Sometimes we forget old injuries. Sometimes we think they just don’t matter because they’re so old. But believe us when we tell you that it is a mistake to forget or omit information about past injuries when you’re asked by your accident doctor. No matter how innocent or inadvertent your omission, the insurance company will try to make it seem that you were intentionally hiding the information about your prior injury. Once it’s shown that you failed to answer a question about your medical history accurately, they will say that you’re not a very reliable witness or that you were being dishonest as part of an effort to make your case look better. Either way, inaccurate or dishonest, you will have hurt your case. So, think hard and make sure you disclose all your prior injuries, if asked.