After an accident, you may walk away feeling fine, only later to experience extreme pain. Unfortunately, when filing personal injury claims, most insurance companies may argue that your injury isn't their responsibility. Dealing with delayed symptoms will give you a challenge if you want to pursue compensation.
As per the National Safety Council, car accidents led to 4.9 million medically consulted injuries. These crashes can be so traumatic and disorienting. Immediately after an accident, emotions are high, and adrenaline is pumping such that it may be hard to notice if you aren't okay.
Once things seem to settle down, some injuries may start to show days and weeks after the crash. While proving injury cases like these is hard, you can still get compensation for delayed symptoms if you follow the right procedure.
Why Do Delayed Symptoms Happen After a Crash?
When your body goes through trauma, you may experience injury symptoms delay. Here are reasons why:
Adrenaline Masks Pain
After an accident, you may produce a lot of adrenaline that numbs your pain receptors. Once your body starts to relax, the hidden wounds appear.
Gradual Inflammation
If you suffer from injuries such as internal trauma and soft tissue damage, you'll often face delayed symptoms. These injuries often become noticeable as inflammation increases.
Neurological Injuries
Suffering from brain injuries, such as concussions or traumatic brain injuries, is devastating. These injuries aren't obvious immediately. You'll notice something is wrong once you experience headaches, memory loss, or dizziness over time.
What Are the Legal Challenges of Proving Injuries With Delayed Symptoms?
Delayed symptoms can seriously hurt your personal injury claims. Here are some legal obstacles to injuries you'll face:
Undermined Credibility
When you report injuries days after the crash, you leave room for the insurer to question how you actually got the injuries. These questions can hurt your credibility and weaken your claim.
Lower Compensation
During the injury case, the insurers may use the delay to offer you a lower settlement. When this happens, it undervalues the cost of your medical care and non-economic damages like pain and suffering.
Statute of Limitations Issues
Most states have a legal time limit within which you must have filed a personal injury lawsuit. If the delayed symptoms take too long to be documented, you risk losing out on your compensation.
How Can You Go About Protecting Legal Rights After a Crash?
Just because your symptoms are delayed doesn't mean you're out of options. Here's how to protect your personal injury claim:
- Get medical attention immediately after a crash
- Monitor and document symptoms in the days after the accident
- Follow up with medical providers
- Don't settle too quickly
During this process, you should partner with a professional injury law firm. Your lawyers will know how to present delayed injuries in a convincing legal framework.
Consult a Personal Injury Claims Attorney
Filing personal injury claims that deal with situations where you experienced delayed symptoms can be hard. Most of the time, insurance companies will try to poke holes in the validity of your injuries to lowball your settlement. Working with qualified attorneys should be your first attempt at protecting your legal rights.
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