Medical Care After a Road Accident
It’s important to seek medical care as soon as possible following a road accident – not just to assess the severity of the damage and treat any injury or harm caused to the victims of the accident but also to ensure the documentation of evidence indicating the link between the accident and the damage caused. In addition, this will help you avoid claims by insurance companies to decrease the compensation amount. This article presents legal information that road accident victims need to know, in order to obtain the highest compensation available to them according to the law.
Why is it so important to urgently seek medical care after a road accident?
Nothing can really prepare us for a shocking event such as a road accident. We hear about horrific traffic accidents in Israel almost every day, watch films and TV shows that feature road accident scenes, and sometimes even personally know victims of road accidents from our social circles and family. However, nothing can really prepare a person for all they have to deal with following injury in a car accident. Naturally, no one accident is like another, in terms of the injury’s severity, the trauma caused following the accident, etc. However, what is shared by all accidents in which the victims suffered some physical damage, or even psychological damage (such as anxiety), is the need to seek medical care following the road accident. It’s not only important to seek medical care, but also to keep the documents recording that care.
Many are unaware of the importance behind seeking medical care as soon as possible, as well the need to keep all medical documents. In our extensive experience, as lawyers regularly handling the representation of road accident victims, we have seen many cases in which road accident victims have failed to seek medical care as soon as possible, and thus later lost their right to receive significant compensation. This is why, in this article, we would like to help you avoid any disappointments, and help you understand why it’s important to seek medical care after a road accident, not just for the sake of your health and bodily integrity, but also in terms of legal and insurance issues. Or, to put it another why – why failing to seek medical care as soon a possible following an accident, and failing to keep all medical records about all treatments you received, might prevent you from obtaining compensation, which can sometimes reach the amount of dozens or even hundreds of thousands of ILS, and sometimes even more.
What are the most urgent things that victims of car accidents need to handle after the accidents?
Naturally, a road accident event is accompanied with mixed feelings of panic, fear, and confusion. Often, this might prevent victims of vehicle accidents from handling all the issues they should handle following the accident. This includes the need to document the scene of the accident, whether by camera or by recording the accident’s details (such as the vehicle’s details, the contacts of those involved as well as eye witnesses, and any other important detail); the need to notify the Israel Police, which is critical for obtaining a police confirmation (which is important, among other things, in order to cover the victim’s hospitalization and medical care expenses); and the need to seek medical care to immediately receive appropriate treatment. This last issue is highly important, since very often, the bodies of vehicle accident victims become pumped with adrenaline after the accident, so that they’re unable to recognize the full damage caused to them. Even if you think you only suffered a light bruising, the injury might later turn out to be closed fractures, or other medical complications you were not aware of. Only medical care can assess your physical and mental state after the accident. As we explain below, this is also immensely important from a legal viewpoint.
What is the connection between seeking immediate medical care as soon as possible following a road accident, and the compensation claim with respect to the accident?
First and foremost, seeking medical care immediately following the accident can serve as proof of causation between the accident event and the damages you suffered. Those only arriving at the hospital following a few days or a few weeks take the risk that this would not constitute sufficient proof that the subject damages of their claim were indeed caused following the accident. In addition, in many cases of compensation claims against the insurance companies of mandatory insurance policies holders, a medical expert needs to be appointed to decide on the matter of the damages’ severity.
In such cases, medical records are required in particular, as a condition for the expert’s appointment. In addition to all the above, insurance companies may often try to raise arguments that would help them reduce the amount of compensation they would be obliged to pay. One of these arguments is that the accident’s victims failed to act fully to mitigate the damage caused to them. In cases where the accident’s victims did not immediately seek medical care, the insurance company might argue that it should pay out a reduced amount of compensation, since the injured parties could have mitigated the damage and failed to do so (and therefore, this reduces the insurance company’s liability). Put simply: failing to seek medical care soon after a road accident might reduce the amount of compensation you eventually receive from the insurance company.
Why is it important to make sure to obtain and keep the medical records about the accident?
Compensation claims with respect to road accidents (pursuant to the Road Accident Victims Compensation Law or pursuant to the Torts Ordinance) might be long and complicated. Sometimes such claims are conducted for several years. The documents recording the medical care you received serve as critical evidence, and will be used while conducting the claim. The lawyer representing you will need all the documents in order to best handle the claim. In addition, you might also be required to present the documents in various stages of the process, for example while filing a disability claim at the National Insurance Institute, or as part of intermediate processes to obtain an advance on account of the compensation (prompt damages) while conducting the claim. For this reason, it’s important to obtain and keep all the documents recording the medical care you received, and even make sure to create certified copies of the most critical documents.
Medical care after a road accident – contact a lawyer specializing in torts law and representation of road accident victims.
In this article, we explained why it’s important to seek medical care as soon as possible following a road accident, and to keep all documents recording the medical care you received, both in terms of your health, and in terms of legal and insurance issues. If you have any questions or need assistance in this area, the lawyers from our law firm would be happy to help you. Our law firm, located in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, specialized in torts law and the representation of road accident victims in compensation claims and disability claims, in all judicial forums, insurance companies, and the National Insurance Institute. Click here to contact us and schedule a consultation meeting with a lawyer from our law firm.
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