After a car accident, significant back pain can weigh you down for any number of reasons. Sometimes, you may suffer back pain because of a herniated disc. Other times, you may have a strained or sprained muscle from a car accident. You need treatment for your injuries and assistance covering those vital medical bills, but in order to receive support from the other driver’s insurance company, you will need to show that your back pain and injury occurred during the car accident, not at another time.
How can you prove that your back injury was caused by a car accident?
1. Seek medical attention immediately after your accident.
Ideally, you should seek medical attention as soon after your car accident as possible. Sometimes, you may assume that you’re fine after a collision. Any time you experience the force involved in a car accident, however, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible. A doctor can help pinpoint the immediate cause of the accident, which may make it easier for you to show that the car accident caused your back pain or injury.
Immediate medical attention can serve another purpose, too: it can quickly identify any injuries and give you a care plan that will make it easier to improve your odds of making a full recovery, which may decrease the overall pain you face after your accident.
What if you do not seek immediate medical attention?
Sometimes, car accident victims choose not to pursue medical attention for their injuries immediately. They may, for example, assume that they didn’t suffer an injury in the accident and choose, as a result, not to go to the hospital. Later, more serious suffering crops up.
Seek a medical opinion as soon as you can. A doctor can offer a statement that gives a better idea of what led to your accident and why, including the likelihood that the car accident caused your injuries. Thanks to that medical opinion, your lawyer can start to build a more effective claim.
2. Provide copies of your medical records.
Generally, you will need to show copies of your medical records to establish your past medical history and whether you have suffered injuries in the past that could have caused your back pain or injury. The insurance company, and your attorney, may want to look at several key pieces of evidence.
- Tests, including MRIs and x-rays, that offer a look at what injury you have. Your scans and images will establish what type of injury you suffered and the reason behind your back pain, which can help you prove that you have an acute injury, rather than pain that comes from arthritis or wear and tear over time.
- Past medical records. Your case may be stronger if you can show medical records that do not indicate a past history of back pain and other problems. If you do have back pain in your medical history, your records could show that the pain was in a different location or caused by a source that you had treated.
- Current medical records, including the treatment you may have received for your injury. Not only can your treatments help establish your medical costs related to a back injury in a car accident, they can offer evidence that you have pursued treatment for those injuries, even if the treatment you sought ultimately proved unsuccessful.
3. Establish the damage caused by the car accident.
In order to establish how your back injury occurred, your lawyer will take a look at the damage to your vehicle and to the other vehicle. The type of impact you sustained and the extent of the damage to your vehicle can go a long way toward establishing exactly how your back injury occurred.
In some cases, even a car accident that caused relatively minor damage to your vehicle can cause serious, ongoing back pain, including whiplash. However, in general, if you claim symptoms like a herniated disc, a sprain or strain, or a fractured vertebrae, you may need to show that the accident involved enough force to have caused those injuries. The damage to the vehicle can help establish how much force went into the accident. An expert witness can often reconstruct the scene of the accident and the damage caused by the incident to determine whether the accident involved enough force to cause back injuries. If you suffered a relatively low-impact collision, you may have a harder time proving that it caused a serious back injury.
4. Offer an accurate assessment of your pain and your medical needs.
In order to file a car accident claim for back pain or injury, you will need to show that you actually suffered a back injury, often one that causes significant disability. If you can engage in all your normal activities, including athletic endeavors like hiking, running, or playing sports, you may find it more difficult to establish that your car accident led to serious injuries. Offer your lawyer an accurate assessment of your injuries and how they have limited your life after your accident. Be honest about the pain you have faced. While it may seem tempting to exaggerate your symptoms in the hopes that you will increase the compensation you can recover for the accident, often, that exaggeration can cost you the claim.
5. Make sure you’re working with an experienced car accident lawyer.
Ultimately, a lawyer can be one of the greatest benefits you have as you file a car accident claim to help you seek compensation for a back injury or back pain. A car accident lawyer can help determine what evidence you might need to prove your claim and put together a case that clearly establishes when your injuries occurred.
At Allan Berger & Associates, we have successfully helped many of our past clients recover compensation for car accident injuries, including back injuries and back pain. Contact us today at 504-526-2222 to schedule your free consultation and learn more about how to prove that your back injuries occurred during your car accident.
