Sometimes, the injuries you have sustained in a car accident may not be immediately apparent. If, for example, you are involved in a 10-car pileup on a Chicago highway, and have emerged relatively unscathed, you may decline the advice of an EMT to get checked out at a local hospital, “just to make sure.” Especially if other motorists have been severely injured, you may even feel guilty about getting treatment for your scratches and bruises, and choose to go home instead.
This is a major mistake. If you decline immediate medical care, you have created a crucial gap in the paper trail needed to file an Illinois personal injury claim at a later date.
What happens if you wake up two days later feeling dizzy or nauseous, or you have a stiff neck, or if you feel a pain in your abdomen that wasn’t noticeable right after the accident? You can still visit a doctor, and that doctor can still make the reasonable inference that you were injured in the pileup—but if you choose to sue another driver, or your insurance company, for damages, their attorneys will seize on your carelessness to claim that you sustained your injuries elsewhere, or even that you made them up in order to file a lawsuit.
At Lane Brown, LLC, our experienced Chicago vehicle accident lawyers know that it pays to be thorough when laying the groundwork for a personal injury lawsuit in Illinois. If you don’t back up your claim with the proper medical documentation, or if you give opposing counsel any reason at all to believe that the documentation is suspect, you may not be able to recoup damages for your injuries and time off from work.
Questions? Call us today at 312-332-1400 for a free consultation!
