Muscatine Personal Injury Attorneys

A personal injury case is not won or lost in a courtroom alone. Long before any lawsuit is filed, the foundation of your claim is built through your medical records, your interactions with insurance adjusters, and the decisions your attorney helps you make about how to pursue a resolution. Many Muscatine injury victims unknowingly damage their own cases by making avoidable mistakes at each of these stages. Understanding what those mistakes are and how to avoid them is one of the most valuable things you can do after suffering an injury.

10 Critical Mistakes to Avoid When Dealing with Doctors After an Injury

Many people fail to realize how important their interactions with a doctor are when treating an injury. Common mistakes can make a meaningful difference in your case whether you have been hurt in a car accident, work injury, or any other type of personal injury. Not reporting pain and how the injury is affecting your work will limit the information documented in your records and will affect the doctor's opinion of your injury. Here are the ten most common medical mistakes Muscatine injury victims make.

1. Failing to See a Doctor Immediately

It is your responsibility to prove that you were injured by the accident. If you have any pain or problems, you need to seek medical care immediately. Insurance companies and juries frequently believe that if a person does not seek prompt medical attention, the condition may not actually be related to the accident. Even relatively minor pain can lead to serious problems later, so see a doctor as soon as possible. The first thing an insurance company's attorney wants to tell a jury is that you did not bother seeing a doctor until days after the accident.

2. Discussing Your Legal Claim with Medical Providers

The job of your medical providers is to focus on your injuries and provide treatment. They do not need to know about your lawsuit or whether you have an attorney. Whatever you say to your medical providers is not confidential once you bring a claim for injuries. Anything and everything you tell them will end up in your medical records, which the insurance company and potentially a judge or jury will see. You will, however, need to tell your providers how you were injured, for example, that you were hurt in a car accident on a specific date or that your back went out while lifting at work.

3. Hiding Your Prior Health History from Your Doctor

Your doctors will usually ask whether you have previously had any injury to the same area of the body where you are now experiencing problems. You must be honest and not attempt to hide prior problems, because they will eventually surface. If you provide incomplete or inaccurate information, it can negatively affect the quality of your care and will likely hurt your legal case. Eventually, all of your prior medical records will be made available to the insurance company, and dishonesty will only give them ammunition to attack your credibility.

4. Missing or Arriving Late to Medical Appointments

When you fail to attend an appointment, your medical record will note it as a "No Show" or "DNS." While you may have a valid reason, these notations look bad and can suggest to a jury that you did not take your injuries seriously. More than one missed appointment can also damage your relationship with your medical providers, and doctors who are upset with their patients often do not make strong witnesses on their behalf. If you must cancel, call at least 24 hours in advance.

5. Failing to Tell Your Doctor How the Injury Affects Your Work

Your medical records are the foundation of your injury claim. If there is no mention in your records of how your injury is affecting your ability to do your job, it is unlikely that an insurance company or jury will simply take your word for it later. If your injury is negatively impacting your ability to work, document this by telling your healthcare provider at every appointment. Bringing written notes to your appointments can help make sure nothing is overlooked.

6. Allowing Pain to Be Improperly Documented

Pain is something your medical providers cannot see or touch, but they are required to document it in your records. Insurance companies and juries will look closely at how quickly you reported pain after the accident, where the pain was located, how severe it was, and how long it lasted. Writing out your symptoms beforehand and providing your doctor with a copy at each appointment can help ensure your pain makes it into a busy doctor's chart. Do not exaggerate, as doctors are trained to identify inconsistencies, and an exaggerated report can produce negative notes in your records that work against you.

7. Not Taking Medications as Prescribed

Doctors prescribe specific medications for specific periods of time for good reason. If you believe a medication is producing unwanted side effects, contact your doctor to discuss switching to something else. Do not stop taking prescribed medication on your own. Some medications need to be tapered off, and failing to follow your doctor's orders gives the insurance company a reason to question your commitment to your own recovery.

8. Stopping Treatment Too Soon or Allowing Large Gaps Between Visits

Insurance companies and juries tend to conclude that when a person stops seeking medical treatment, they have healed. Significant gaps between treatments of a month or more will be used against you, suggesting that you recovered from the original injury and may have sustained a new one that you have not disclosed. If your doctor tells you that you are released or to come back as needed but you are still experiencing problems, follow up within a few weeks. Your doctor may be able to refer you to a specialist for additional treatment.

9. Failing to Keep Records

You need to keep business cards, bills, and other records of every medical provider you see. Your attorney will need this information to obtain your records. Keep copies of work excuses, restrictions, referrals, and other written orders from your medical providers. If you provide a work excuse to your employer, always retain a copy for your own records to support your claim later on.

10. Ignoring Treatment for Anxiety or Depression

Pain, limited activities, and disability often cause anxiety and depression following an injury. These conditions are just as real as a broken bone and deserve proper medical attention. You can be compensated for psychological conditions caused by your injury, but unless your mental health issues are properly diagnosed and treated, it is unlikely that you will receive compensation for them. Tell your doctor if you are experiencing emotional difficulties following your injury and seek appropriate care.

How to Deal with Insurance Adjusters After a Muscatine Injury

Once you are in the medical system and building your record of treatment, the next major challenge most Muscatine injury victims face is dealing with insurance adjusters. Understanding how adjusters operate is essential before you speak with any of them.

Different insurance companies operate in different ways, and knowing what to expect from the specific insurer involved in your case can help you avoid costly mistakes.

EMC Insurance

EMC is a Des Moines-based company and one of the largest workers' compensation insurers in Iowa. Generally, most EMC adjusters are responsive and will return calls, emails, and letters. However, do not allow their courteous manner to convince you they are working in your favor, or that the amount they say they owe you is all they owe.

Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual is one of the top writers of workers' compensation coverage in Iowa most years. Their adjusters have access to in-house Iowa attorneys who help evaluate and handle cases. If Liberty Mutual assigns an attorney to your case, you should strongly consider retaining your own attorney. In a workers' compensation case involving an injury after July 1, 2017, being persuaded to "retire" or leave your job instead of being formally terminated could cost you tens of thousands of dollars in benefits.

Sedgwick and Gallagher Bassett

Sedgwick and Gallagher Bassett are third-party administrators (TPAs), meaning they work on behalf of self-insured companies or insurance carriers that do not have their own Iowa adjusters. In practice, they tend to be more difficult to deal with than direct insurance company adjusters. Obtaining records, securing return calls, and receiving timely responses to correspondence can all become significant obstacles when these administrators are involved.

AIG

AIG is a large New York-based insurance company with many subsidiary companies. Their adjusters often take an aggressive, hands-off approach: failing to return calls promptly, responding slowly to written communications, and at times showing little concern for the challenges the injured person is facing. Not every AIG adjuster operates this way, but the pattern is common enough to warrant caution.

Travelers

Travelers adjusters are often based out of a large claims center in Overland Park, Kansas. Like Liberty Mutual, Travelers has in-house Iowa attorneys who may work behind the scenes advising adjusters or may take a more active role in handling your case. When you are unrepresented and the other side has attorneys with knowledge of Iowa law and professional negotiating techniques, the power imbalance is significant.

Zurich

Zurich is a large international insurer that brings in more than 47 billion dollars in revenue each year. One of its largest subsidiaries is Farmers Insurance. Claims are often handled by adjusters located far from Iowa who may not know the details of Iowa law. Regardless of how they present themselves, their goal is to pay you as little as possible.

For more guidance on handling insurance companies, you can also read What Insurers Don't Want You to Know on the iowainjured.com website.

Resolving a Personal Injury Dispute Without Going to Trial

Many personal injury cases are resolved through direct negotiations with an insurance company. But when those negotiations break down or a fair offer never materializes, Muscatine injury victims have options for resolving the dispute short of a full trial. Understanding alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods can help you make informed decisions about how to pursue your case.

Arbitration

Arbitration is in some ways similar to a courtroom hearing but with fewer rules governing the use of evidence. An arbitrator reviews the facts and evidence, listens to testimony from witnesses, and then makes a decision. It is generally less costly and faster than full litigation.

Arbitration can be binding or non-binding. In binding arbitration, the arbitrator's decision is final. In non-binding arbitration, the parties may choose not to accept the outcome. Both sides must agree on who will serve as the arbitrator. The hearing can be held in virtually any setting, making it more convenient for everyone involved. Evidence presented can include tangible items, medical records, photographs, video footage, and other relevant documentation. Witnesses provide testimony and may be cross-examined, including both firsthand observers of the accident and expert witnesses such as medical professionals or accident reconstruction specialists.

Mediation

Mediation is an even less formal process and is more commonly used in personal injury cases. Like arbitration, it avoids litigation and saves time, money, and stress. However, a mediator does not make a decision or ruling and does not offer an opinion. The mediator's role is to allow both parties to share their perspectives and then guide them toward a mutually satisfactory agreement.

The mediator may help both parties recognize that they actually agree on certain elements of the case, then work to bridge their differences and reach a resolution that is fair to everyone. Most mediations begin with both parties in the same room before the mediator separates them and begins moving back and forth between the two groups, carrying offers, demands, questions, and responses. Most people who mediate a personal injury case should expect to make some compromises. If the matter cannot be resolved through mediation, the case may need to go to trial.

Weighing the Pros and Cons of ADR

The primary advantages of alternative dispute resolution are well established: it takes less time, costs less money, and tends to produce less emotional strain than courtroom litigation. In mediation in particular, the parties are more involved in the decision-making process and have more say in the final outcome. If a case goes to trial and the other side prevails, the injured person could walk away with nothing. ADR gives both sides the opportunity to reach an agreement rather than leaving the outcome entirely in someone else's hands.

That said, ADR has real drawbacks. Money spent on arbitration or mediation that fails to produce a resolution means additional funds must be spent on litigation anyway. A qualified Muscatine personal injury attorney can help you evaluate whether ADR makes sense for your specific case and, if so, which method gives you the best chance of a fair outcome.