3 Major Mistakes Injured People Make Over and Over

Because I talk to so many injured people, I know what people are curious about after a car accident, work injury, or however they had an accident with an injury. And the mistakes injured peope make.

So there are three mistakes I see injured people make over and over. They wouldn't make these mistakes if they knew how bad they could be for their chances at a fiar recovery for their injuries.

Since my goal is to help injured people, I decided to write this article to help you or your loved one avoid the three most common mistakes the three most major mistakes injured people make.

If you know what they are, you can really protect the settlement value of your injury case.

Mistake Injured People Make #1:   Skip seeing a doctor.

I just spoke with a young man who was involved in a very serious car crash. He was driving on a road out in the suburbs with the speed limit of 60 miles an hour.

He was on his way to work.

Traffic ahead of him slowed down, but the truck behind him did not. He saw the headlights a split second before the crash and estimated that the truck was going about 50 miles an hour.

The crash was big enough to total his car and pushed his car into a ditch.

He was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and was here for about 24 hours. At the emergency room, they did everything. All kinds of x-rays and MRIs. Everything you can imagine.

The ER doctors and nurses told him to follow up with his family doctor and suggested that he see an orthopedic doctor because of the pain in his neck and back. The pain was traveling down his right arm and leg. That's a classic sign of a pinched nerve in your neck or back.

Unfortunately, this young man waited two months to follow up with his family doctor and get a referral. This is a common mistake injured people make.

Understandably, his family doctor was somewhat skeptical. The problem is that a judge and jury and insurance adjuster are going to be skeptical too.

The plain fact is that insurance companies and judges and juries expect you to get prompt follow-up care if you're injured. If you don't, they will assume that you're not hurt that bad or that you're not heard it all and you are filing a lawsuit just to get "free money".

We were able to help this young man in his case because his MRIs showed injuries. So we had physical proof that the very major crash definitely cause permanent harm and damage to this young man's spine. There are ways to prove these cases even if there is a big delay or treatment gap.

But skipping the doctor or delaying a follow-up to the doctor definitely is a major mistake. If you or a loved one got hurt, get into a doctor and get checked out. Follow the doctor's advice.

Mistake Injured People Make #2:   Giving the insurance company a recorded statement.

When an insurance company knows it might be on the hook for paying medical bills or pain-and-suffering after someone gets hurt, they jump right into action. They call the injured people or person. They have an outline or script that they use. They tell the injured person "I want to take a recorded statement so we know what happened".

That is not really true. The insurance company adjuster the insurance adjuster wants to talk to you primarily to get you to say things that hurt your case on a recorded line.

They do that because they know their lawyer can impeach you. Impeach just means that at trial, they try to make you look like a liar.

I had a recent situation where a lady who prefers to speak Spanish hired me in a fall down case. She fell at a grocery store where the grocery store was doing work in an aisle of the store.

But they didn't close the aisle down. They allowed customers in there, and in fact, they had products on display in that area. The area was not closed off or roped off.

So after my client was hurt, she didn't want to make a fuss. She didn't want to call a lawyer, because her English isn't that good.  A common mistake injured people make.

But that did not stop the insurance adjuster from calling her and asking her a bunch of questions in English. She did the best she could, but some of her statements did not make sense and hurt her case.

Insurance companies want to get a crack at you to see if they can try to confuse you and get you to say something bad for your case. There is much better to talk to a lawyer first and refuse to give a recorded statement until you have a lawyer representing your interests.

Luckily, we got photos of where the client fell and were able to help this lady and fix her problem. But it definitely made a relatively easy case much harder and it took us much longer to settle the case.

Never give insurance companies a recorded statement unless you have a lawyer.

Mistake Injured People Make #3:  Not talking to a lawyer.

Virtually all injury lawyers offer a free consultation, meaning that you get to talk to the lawyer and ask your questions 100% free and no obligation.

During a free consultation, a lawyer can point you in the right direction and help you avoid traps that insurance companies set for you so they can beat your case.

I once represented an older gentleman who called me because his children were worried. He had a very bad leg injury from a car accident. The car insurance company was one of the "usual suspects" who are really rotten to injured people.

The insurance company wanted this man to sign some papers and told him that the papers were only so that he could make a claim for his medical bills. Luckily, that's when he decided to call my office.

I asked him to email me the documents and sure enough, the documents were a General Release.  A "General Release" is a piece of paper which ends the case.

In other words, they wanted to trick this gentleman into signing a piece of paper which settles his case for a couple hundred dollars.  Fortunately, his kids forced him to call me before he made that mistake. But he was inches away from really ending any chance he had a fair outcome for his injuries.

It ended up being a very good case with a great outcome, but his reluctance to call a lawyer almost cost him everything.  He avoided a common mistake injured people make, thanks to his kids telling him to call an injury lawyer.

If you or a your loved one is hurt, don't be afraid to call a lawyer.

If you talk to a lawyer who is a jerk, hang up the phone. Find a lawyer who you like who answers your questions and who is respectful. If the lawyer you talk to isn't respectful, find another one.

My goal here is that this information helps you avoid the three major mistakes injured people make after they get hurt. 

If I can be of service or if you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call at 312-500-4500.

We answer that telephone 24 hours a day 365 days a year, so you can call at any time.

We look forward to hearing from you, and have a great day.

I hope this information helps you understand personal injury settlement timelines as far as how fast you will get your money. I promise you, at my office, we do everything in our power to speed things along. We don't get paid until you get paid. And there's no reason for you to wait one extra day to get your money.