Documenting your New York personal injury claim is crucial to ensuring you receive the compensation you deserve.
By taking the time to document your claim, you can establish a clear record of the events that led to your injury. You can also keep track of your medical expenses and other costs.
Finally, you can make a stronger case for compensation and negotiate a better settlement with the insurance company.
What Needs to Be Documented?
Here are a few items you should document.
- The scene of the accident. Usually, you’ll take pictures of the accident site, your own injuries, and prevailing conditions. In a car accident, you’ll also take down the name, contact information, and insurance information of the other driver or drivers. Finally, you’d get the names and numbers of any witnesses.
- Your medical records. You want to keep all of them: hospital bills, doctor’s notes, prescription paperwork, discharge paperwork, medical device paperwork, and more. This includes psychological records if your psychological care is related to the accident or injury.
- Wage and earnings records. If you’re claiming lost wages, gather your most recent W-2s. If you’re self-employed and can’t work as a result, gather your tax returns and invoices.
- Transportation receipts for travel to and from medical services.
- Home healthcare costs.
- Home services costs.
- A daily journal of your experience following the accident to document your pain and suffering. Include the limitations on your activities, nightmares you suffer, your daily pain levels, and any other difficulties you may have. Be honest; not over the top. Some days will be better, some will be worse. Courts will want to see a credible accounting of your pain and suffering.
We recommend keeping all this information in a big file box or binder where you can easily get to it whenever you need it.
How Documenting Your Claim Impacts Your Personal Injury Case
All legal matters require an evidence-based foundation to build a case around. We need to be able to show a credible basis for the damages we’re requesting.
In addition, failing to document your case could result in a lower settlement or verdict. One lost bill could cheat you out of thousands of dollars.
Finally, the better documented your claim, the more likely insurance companies are to negotiate. A documented claim is a strong case claim that will be harder for them to defend against.
Get Help Today
Have you been injured in an accident? Documentation isn’t enough if you don’t have an experienced lawyer on your side.
Contact us to schedule a case review today. We’ll help you maximize your settlement or verdict by helping you build the strongest possible case.
See also:
Types of Damages in Personal Injury Cases