If you were involved in an automobile accident caused by another driver, you may not realize that you were injured at first. One reason could be that the adrenaline and endorphins your body produced at the time of the crash masked the pain and gave you a false sense of energy. Sometimes, a person does not experience any symptoms of injuries they have suffered until weeks or longer after the accident. However, you could still be entitled to compensation from the negligent driver.
What Happens If Your Injuries Don’t Show Symptoms Until After the Accident?
Certain types of injuries often do not become apparent until weeks or months after a car accident, but can be serious and result in long-term changes to your life. Some of these late-appearing injuries include:
Neck injuries
Spinal injuries
Head injuries, such as concussions and traumatic brain injuries
If you did not realize you were injured at the time of the accident, you may not have obtained immediate medical care. You may have even told the police officer or other driver that you were not injured. If you experience injury symptoms you believe were caused by the accident, you should take the following steps:
Seek medical care. Ideally, if you felt even a minor injury at the time of the crash, you sought medical care and mentioned the injury. If not, you need to consult with a doctor as soon as you suspect an injury and receive follow-up medical treatment. If you fail to do this, the insurance adjuster could argue that you didn’t really suffer an injury or it was not very serious.
Do not settle right away. You do not want to negotiate a settlement with the negligent driver’s insurance company too soon after the accident. Once you’ve completed the settlement, you would not be able to seek further compensation if you later discovered you needed additional medical treatments.
Contact an experienced car accident attorney. An experienced attorney will understand that some injuries do not appear right away and that settling your claim too early could result in you receiving less compensation than you are entitled to. An attorney will also know how to handle any statements you made stating that you were not injured at the accident scene.
If you were injured in a car accident caused by another driver, do not let late-appearing injuries stop you from getting the compensation you could be entitled to. Order my free book, Your Guide to Accident Claims in Florida: Don’t Wreck Your Injury Case, to start learning about your legal rights.
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