If you have been injured as a result of an accident, make sure you do the following:

• Seek medical attention and keep track of your treatment 
• Document the facts surrounding your accident
• Consult with an attorney

Medical Treatment

First things first. Seek medical attention if you need it. Your health is priority #1. Depending on the severity of your injuries, you may not even have a choice. An ambulance may already be on its way before you even realize what happened. Seeking medical treatment may go well beyond the day of the accident. Whether or not you required an ambulance transport and/or a visit to the emergency room, following up with your primary care provider regarding your injury should occur. Your primary care provider may refer you to a specialist or recommend continued treatment, such as physical therapy. Depending on the extent of your injury and your body’s response, you may even end up a candidate for surgery. Regardless of where your injury and treatment plan takes you, follow the advice of the trained medical professionals.

If you are considering bringing a personal injury claim in connection with the accident, it is helpful to be a good “historian” with respect to your treatment. In other words, it will be in your best interest to be able to accurately describe the medical treatment you underwent to date. To help you do this, make note of the dates of visits, the names and locations of the medical facilities you visited, the names of any medical professionals you treated with and what they told you regarding your injuries and treatment. If you receive any documentation, set it aside in a designated folder as it may be helpful later on. If you hire an attorney, he or she will help you collect and assemble the necessary medical records for your claim. During this process, you will sign patient authorization forms, which will be forwarded to the medical providers in order to obtain your medical records. It is important to leave no stone unturned when collecting your medical records. This is why it is so important to accurately keep track of all the facilities and medical providers visited in connection with the treatment of your injury. 

Document the Accident

Just as important as adequately documenting your medical treatment, is documenting the circumstances surrounding the accident. While seeking medical attention may be the only thing on your mind at the time, it is very important to document as much as possible early on. If you are unable to do this yourself, enlist someone to help you. This may include taking photographs or video recordings, obtaining copies of incident or accident reports, or securing witness statements. In most cases, you will likely be tending to your injury and not able to obtain a statement from a witness. However, if you at least obtain the name and contact information of the witness, someone can follow up with the witness to obtain a statement.

If you choose to bring an injury claim later on, documentation that was taken contemporaneously to, or at the time of, the accident will be the most important information when determining how the accident and your injury occurred. It is important to realize that memories fade over time. If an injury claim is made, which has the potential to turn into a lawsuit, it is possible that years will go by before a witness is called to testify. Stories can change. Even the most honest people may remember things differently than how they actually occurred. If a witness statement is taken at or around the time of the accident, it will surely contain more accurate details than the witness’s account from memory years later.

Photographs are an extremely effective way of documenting an accident, especially a motor vehicle accident. See What do I do if I slip and fall in a retail store? for more specific documentation related to retail store accidents. When taking photos at the scene of a motor vehicle accident, most people take photos of the damage with the thought of a property damage claim with their insurer. However, photographs are extremely important to an injury claim as well. Photos may show the point of impact between vehicles which may explain how a particular injury occurred. Photos will also show how powerful an impact or collision may have been, which could explain the severity of the injuries. In addition to photos of the vehicles, it is important to photograph the surrounding area. Photos that show the street names and lines of site are helpful. Photos that show skid marks are helpful. Photos may also help identify witnesses or other motorists that stopped to help. 

What you might think is a minor detail may be very important to your case. There is no harm in gathering too much information. If something is not useful, it can be set aside. It is preferable to over- document than to under-document. Injury claims can take years to resolve. It is better to have accurate information early on rather than try to piece things together years later.

Consult with an Attorney

If you hire an attorney, he or she will help you collect and assemble documentation concerning the accident. An attorney may ask you various questions regarding the circumstances of the accident to determine what evidence may exist. It is important to identify this information as quickly as possible. Depending on the type of information, it could be lost forever if not timely discovered. For example, if an accident occurs in an area that may have been captured by video surveillance, it is important to make sure the video is preserved before it is overwritten or deleted. Many times, when trying to gather and preserve this type of evidence, a party may take the position that you are not entitled to it. It is common for this to occur. This is where hiring an attorney is helpful. An attorney may contact these parties to put them on notice of your claim and instruct them to preserve all evidence related to the accident.

Your attorney will be able to assess the information available and advise you as to options surrounding a personal injury claim. Depending on the circumstances of your accident, an attorney may require more information to accurately assess your case. If you are able to gather the information outlined above, that is great. If you need help, an attorney can assist you. An attorney will have more experience in what to look for, what to request and how to go about doing it. It may be possible for a claim to resolve quickly and easily. Or, it may be the type of case that goes into litigation with certain information not produced until the discovery phase of a lawsuit. The attorney will assist you with the process and be able to advise you as to your options along the way. It may be that you decide not to bring a claim at all.