Some injuries create a larger number of expenses for the injured victim. Hence affected victims need to spend more money on having that medical problem assessed and treated. By the same token, some injuries are more serious than others.
Insurance companies study the amount of pain associated with a reported injury.
The insurance industry recognizes the extent to which pain has become associated with specific medical problems. Those are cases where the injury’s nature allows it to be categorized as “hard.”
An injury’s hardness often indicates the extent to which the patient requires some form of physical repair. Sometimes, the same patient needs to undergo an intrusive examination. A broken bone, a TBI (traumatic brain injury), a back injury, an open wound, a separation or dislocation, and a cartilage tear, all fit into the category that has this label: hard.
Personal Injury Lawyer in St Thomas knows that when an injury’s nature does not allow it to qualify as hard, the insurance industry refers to it as “soft.” A plaintiff that has a soft medical condition must produce clear evidence of pain, in order to get a fair compensation. Plaintiffs can get good money for a sprain or strain, if the evidence supports the plaintiffs’ complaints, regarding prolonged or recurring pains.
Questions that must be answered, if an accident victim hopes to win a large award
When did the painful sensations start? Painful sensations that start soon after an accident’s occurrence help to strengthen a case’s value. Still, a doctor would not cast doubt on a claim of delayed pain, if a victim’s soft tissue had been damaged.
When did any other symptoms appear? The appearance of other symptoms can increase the value of complaints about painful sensations. For example, the victim of a TBI might have only mild headaches in the days immediately after the accident. Yet, the same person might later develop sleeping problems, or even dizziness.
Was the accident victim suffering with any other medical problem on the day of the accident? A parent should ask that question, if a child was riding in a car that felt a forceful impact from another vehicle. It could be that such a child had complained about a headache. If that were the case, then the impact would have jarred a head in which an infection was present, in the inner ear.
That fact should be brought to the attention of any doctor that examines the same child. A brain becomes especially susceptible to damage, if it gets knocked around, when there is an infection inside of the head. Fortunately, a pediatric neurologist could order a CT scan, in order to determine the extent to which the child’s brain was damaged. An insurance company could view the findings.