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"I live in a world of proof" is a phrase that I came up with years ago. The idea is that if I can't prove the facts and law of a case there will be no recovery. You may believe in your heart of hearts that something is true or not true, but if I can't prove it, no recovery will be made. Essential to any personal injury case is being able to prove damages and that the damages claimed were caused by the accident.
I NEVER KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO BE PROVING ONE YEAR FROM NOW, and a companion rule THERE ARE NO UNIMPORTANT SYMPTOMS (see make a list, below). Everything that you so or say in a medical setting could come back to help the case, or hurt it. It is critical that, as early in the course of treatment as possible, all symptoms are reported COMPLETELY to the doctor. And in this sense I'm not worried so much about whatever hurts you the most, because I know that you will talk to the doctor about that. No, I'm referring to the more minor symptoms, perhaps the ones that come and go, or may be covered up with pain medication. The idea here is that whatever hurts you most right now may not be the big injury in the case. For example, lets say a person is injured and claims that a particular injury came from the accident. The first thing the insurance company will do is examine the medical records for some evidence that the claim is true or not. If the first mention in the medical records of that particular symptom is six months after the accident, then it will be very difficult to prove that injury was caused by the accident.
So, I encourage my clients to: MAKE A LIST OF SYMPTOMS when going to the doctor, including on that list all symptoms experienced since the last time the doctor was seen. The reason is to make sure that all of the symptoms are noted in the medical records at the earliest possible time. On that list I want my client to list all symptoms, including those symptoms that come and go, as well as others that do not appear while the patient is in the examining room. When people go to the doctor, they usually end up talking to the doctor about whatever hurts the most at that time. That's not good enough. I encourage clients to take to each doctor's appointment a list that includes all symptoms experienced since the last doctor visit. Clients have gotten a number of reactions from doctors when presented with a list of symptoms. Sometimes the doctor will take the list from the client's hand, and write in the medical records from that list. That's perfect, since all of the symptoms will be written down. A rare reaction is when a doctor wonders out loud why the patient brought them a list. The obvious answer is "Doctor, I'm forgetful and I wanted to make sure you had all the information." - since everyone IS forgetful about something.
The main purpose of completely reporting symptoms to the doctor as early in the process as possible is to be able to prove that all injuries were sustained in the accident and not caused by something else.