If you are the victim of a car accident, and you file a personal injury lawsuit against those who are responsible for your injuries, the burden is on you, the plaintiff, to prove your injuries, and that your injuries are the result of the car accident you were involved in. But how can an injured party go about proving injuries?
Supporting Evidence is Critical
Evidence is the key to proving your car accident injuries and car accident victims have available to them a number of different ways of demonstrating and documenting their injuries with evidence. For instance:
- Documentary Evidence of Your Injuries. Documented evidence of the extent and scope of your car accident injuries is some of the best personal injury evidence that you can collect.
- Photographic Evidence. The expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” is never more true than in a personal injury car accident case. Photographs of your injuries either taken at the scene of the accident or shortly after the accident took place help preserve for the record how extensive your car injuries were. Photographs of your injuries a few days after the accident will also show any latent injuries you may have suffered in your car accident, such as bruising.
- Witness Reports. There are a number of witnesses who can attest to your car accident injuries, and their testimony will help describe how serious your car accident injuries are. First responders can provide reports detailing your condition when they arrived on the scene, and can describe how they treated you immediately after the accident. Doctors’ reports and notes can document the immediate medical care that you required after the accident, as well as what type of care is necessary for your recovery.
- Medical Evidence Proving The Scope and Extent of Your Injuries. The scope and extent of your injuries refers to how serious your car accident injuries are, and how significantly these injuries are going to impact your life. A variety of medical evidence can be used to demonstrate just how serious your injuries truly are.
- Scans and X-Rays. Depending on what types of injuries you may have suffered during your car accident, your doctor might require a number of scans to fully assess your condition. Internal injuries are very common in car accidents, and because these injuries are located within the body, these injuries cannot be easily assessed without the assistance of scanning medical technologies. MRIs, CT scans, and x-rays, either separately or in combination, provide a full picture of what your internal injuries are and their severity.
- Test Results. Sometimes it is hard to determine a medical condition or injury without performing diagnostic testing. Diagnostic testing can detect injuries or complications that are not easily visualized. Damage to certain internal organs might only be discovered through diagnostic tests of urine samples, blood samples, etc. Any and all test results that signify that you have suffered injuries as a result of your car accident will be useful evidence for proving your personal injury claim.
- Diagnosis and Prognosis. A doctor’s diagnosis of your injuries serves as good evidence of the extent and scope of your car accident injuries, and a doctor’s prognosis can serve as good evidence of how your car accident injuries are going to affect your life in the long term.
- Medical Records. Providing copies of your medical records from both before and after the car accident can help provide support to your personal injury claim by clearly demonstrating that your injuries are the result of the accident.
- Evidence of Medical Expenses. Injuries can be demonstrated with evidence of medical expenses related to your car accident injuries. Bills from the hospital, doctor, specialists, pharmacists, etc. not only demonstrate the type and degree of treatment that your car accident injuries require, but these bills also demonstrate that you are suffering financial harm because of your injuries.
- Evidence of Time Off From Work. Many car accident victims have to take time off from work and and time out of their lives in order to recover from their injuries. But every day that you are unable to work equates to lost wages. Lost wages, while not a physical injury, is an economical or financial harm that you are forced to endure because of your car accident injuries. Evidence of how much time you had to be off from work will contribute to the body of evidence supporting how much in damages you should be eligible for.
- Your Own Testimony. While your own testimony concerning your injuries might be biased (because you have to suffer through the pain, you may be angry that you have been injured, or you may exaggerate your injuries because they feel worse than they actually are, etc.), your own testimony, in the form of a recovery journal or something similar, can still be helpful in demonstrating the pain you are experiencing, and also can help capture the challenges you face in recovery. Your own testimony in the form of a journal documents the day-to-day progress of your injuries, and can be used to demonstrate just how significantly your car accident injuries are impacting your life.