Making Notes About Your Injury

By Author: Harvard McIntosh
Total Articles: 25
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One of the first things you must do when you are injured is write down all you can about your accident, including details of your injuries and their impact on your daily life. These notes can be quite useful after six or ten months later, when you put together all the important facts into a final interest in compensation. Having notes to recall mind the facts of the events that happened, and what you experienced, is both easier and much more reliable than relying on your memory.
Enter into the habit of taking notes on whatever you think might affect your claim and make it through the entire claims process. Whenever you remember something you'd not thought of before -- while you're in the shower, just before you go to sleep, as you're biting into a pastry -- write it down and set it with your other notes. Here are a few specific things about which you should make notes.
The Accident
When your head is clear enough, jot down all you can remember about the way the accident happened, starting with that which you used to do and where you had been going, the folks you had been with, time and weather. Include ...
... everything of what you saw and heard and felt -- twists, blows, and shocks for your body immediately before, during, and immediately after the accident. Likewise incorporate whatever you remember hearing anyone -- an individual active in the accident or perhaps a witness – about concerning the accident.
Your Injuries
Within the first days following your accident, make daily notes of all pains and discomfort your injuries caused. You may suffer pain, discomfort, anxiety, loss of sleep, or other problems which are not as visible or serious as another injury however for which you should demand additional compensation. If you do not make specific note of them immediately, you might not remember exactly what to use in your interest in settlement weeks or months later. Also, taking notes will make it easier for you later to explain for an insurance provider how much and what type of pain and discomfort you had been in.
In addition, recording your different injuries may help your doctor diagnose you. For example, a comparatively small bump on the head or snap from the neck might not seem worth mentioning, however it might help both doctor and the insurance company realise why a bad back pain developed weeks after the accident. Also, by telling the doctor or any other medical provider about all your injuries, those injuries become part of your medical records which will provide evidence later that such injuries were brought on by the accident.
Economic or any other Losses
You may be eligible for compensation for economic loss as well as for family, social, educational, or any other losses, and for suffering and pain. However, you will require good documentation. Begin making notes immediately after the accident about anything you have forfeit because of the accident and your injuries: work hours, occupations, meetings, classes, events, family or social gatherings, vacation, or anything else which would have benefited you or which you'd have enjoyed but were not able do due to the accident.
Conversations
Make written notes from the date, time, people involved, and content of each and every conversation you have about your accident or your claim. In-person or telephone conversations worth noting may include those with any witness, adjuster, or other insurance representative, or with medical personnel.