If You’ve Been Injured, Document Every Detail

When you incur an injury at the fault of another, it’s crucial to document your experience from injury to recovery. When filing a personal injury claim, the documentation needed to prove your claim is based on the nature of the injury, the events leading to an incident, and damage resulting from the accident.

Every detail is essential. Follow these guidelines for documenting your injury.

Official Reports
First, immediately following an injury, you should seek medical attention. Doctors are required to create official reports documenting your injuries. Even if the injury doesn’t appear to be severe, having medical documentation can provide a baseline for injuries resulting from an incident later down the road. Be sure to request a copy of the medical report for your records.

If any official workers attend your accident, such as police officers or emergency medical staff, you can request copies of their official reports. These reports are considered public record and can be obtained by all parties. Such information can provide a starting point for an investigation into your personal injury claim.

Depending on where your injury occurred, additional incident reports may also exist. For example, if you are injured at a business, employees are sometimes required to file an incident report for company records.

Bills and Receipts
Following an injury, you want to take special care to record all expenses resulting from treatment or medical attention. The expenses incurred will be used to create a settlement amount for your personal injury case.

In addition to medical bills and insurance benefits paperwork, you can also save records of any extra costs that arise due to your injuries. This includes anything from the cost of gas to get to medical appointments to hiring help to maintain your home if your injury prevents you from doing so.

Photographic Evidence
Photographs can go a long way in proving the extent of your injuries. Document your injuries, the scene of the incident, and vehicles or equipment involved in your injury with photographs.

Images of the incident may help shed light on the cause of the incident or other aspects you may not have been aware of at the time of your injury. Continue to photograph your injuries as they heal.

Written Documentation
When possible, you want to obtain statements from observers of the incident. The sooner a witness statement is documented, the more they are likely to remember details about the incident. Any details provided by observers can be used to determine how the accident occurred later on.

You also want to record your own account of the incident and document continuous updates on your pain level and feelings related to the injury. Write down every way the injury is affecting your life, from lost work time to increased anxiety levels. If there are activities and hobbies that you can no longer do, or you do them but but with more difficulty, note that, as well.

The right documentation can go a long way in proving your personal injury case. For specific information pertaining to your Massachusetts claim, contact our office today. The law outlines specific time limits on when a lawsuit can be filed, depending on the type of case you want to pursue, so don’t delay in pursuing your claim.