Mistakes To Avoid After a Car Accident

Answer:

Somebody asked us the other day what the common mistakes are that people make when they’ve had a car accident and they’re injured in Kansas. We see some of the same ones repeatedly. One is people oftentimes don’t gather all the evidence while it’s fresh in everybody’s mind and there at the scene in particular. It’s very helpful to make sure that you get photographs and witnesses’ information. A lot of people rely on law enforcement or other people who are investigating the claim to take care of gathering that evidence, but they don’t always do what you think they’re doing. A common thing people think is, “Oh, there’s surveillance video. I’m sure that that captured this,” but that’s not always the case. You want to make sure that you are gathering all the evidence that you can there at the scene, getting the information from the other people there, taking photographs and that kind of thing.

Another common mistake that we see is that people don’t go to the doctor, even though they are injured. A lot of times people have some adrenaline there at the scene, so they don’t think that they need to see anybody right then, so they don’t go to the doctor right away. A lot of people are also thinking, even when they do start having symptoms, when the adrenaline has worn off, “Oh, it’s okay. I don’t need to go to the doctor. I’ll get better,” but oftentimes what we see is that it doesn’t get better, and people eventually do have to go to the doctor, but, by that time, a lot of time has passed. The more time that has passed, the insurance company is going to use that to try to discredit your case and say if you really that injured, you would’ve gone right away. It’s really important to go to the doctor and get that treatment, document it, and get started on the road to recovery for that injury. The longer you wait, the worse it’s going to get, and sometimes the harder it can be to treat it and get recovered.

Another mistake we see is that people give a recorded statement to the insurance company. They want to trust the insurance company, they have a good relationship with their local agent, and they think there’s no reason they need to get an attorney involved or be concerned about this because they’re just going to tell the insurance company the truth. The insurance company’s sole focus at that point is to gather the information that they need to justify either delaying or denying your claim, and they’re skilled at asking questions in a way that actually can hurt you, even though you are telling the truth. They ask questions in a certain order or in a certain way that can harm your case, so don’t give a statement to an insurance company.

Finally, probably the biggest mistake we see people make is that they hire the wrong attorney. They have experience with or a prior relationship with an attorney that has handled something in the past for them, so they go to that attorney. You really want to make sure that you’re hiring somebody who is skilled and experienced in handling car accident cases and is able to obtain the best recovery for you.

If you have any questions about this, just give us a call and we can talk about it some more.