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Follow Medical Advice After An Accident

Posted by: at 8:41 PM on February 14th, 2022

After an accident, following your doctor’s instructions may be critical to not only your health, but any legal matters as well.  If your injury involves an insurance claim, you’ll likely be dealing with an insurance adjuster.  The adjuster’s job is to pay you the bare minimum while making the offer sound like the very best of deals.   

One method of getting you to take a low offer is to find weak points in your claim that they can use against you. One of the most common ways they do this is by arguing you are not as injured as you have stated you are in your personal injury claim. How can they make this argument? How could they possibly know about the injuries you are dealing with? Well, they capitalize off of you not following your doctor’s orders.

Doctors are often overly cautious. They want you to get better, so they may ask you to stay in bed for an extended period of time, use a wheelchair or avoid certain activities. However, many patients may feel that, although they are in pair, they don’t want to give up everything they enjoy and disregard some doctor’s orders.  Those are the types of actions that insurance adjusters look for when trying to settle your claim. 

You are still recovering and going on a ten-minute walk does not mean you are healed. But the insurance company only cares about their profits, which means they will find any excuse to pay you as little as possible. Ignoring your doctor’s orders means that you could lose your personal injury claim.

Additionally, following your doctor’s orders can strengthen your case. Your doctor can provide you with medical records proving the extent of your injuries, as well as expert testimony if the insurance company insists on bringing them into the case. But having a successful personal injury claim isn’t the only reason to follow doctor’s orders.

While being off work for a long period, taking medications and being homebound can be a struggle, if it’s your doctor’s advice, follow it.  Your doctor knows more about the healing process than you do. If you neglect to follow your doctor’s orders, it is very possible you will injure yourself even more, fail to heal properly, or even be left with disabilities that will impact you for the rest of your life.

Having an experienced attorney to protect your interests in an injury case and through the claim process can be vital to your physical and financial recovery.  If you or a loved one are injured in an accident, contact the attorneys at Lebell, Dobroski and Morgan.  We have over 40 years of experience working one on one with our clients to get them the justice and settlement they deserve.  For a free consultation of your legal matter, call us at 414 276 1233