Medical Treatment After a Fairfax Car Accident

After a car accident, one of the biggest mistakes a person can make is not following through on medical treatment. If a person does not follow up on a doctor’s orders following a Fairfax car accident, they could run into causation problems. For example, if a doctor tells a person to get a certain test done or follow up with another doctor for their injuries and they do not, then months later when they claim those injuries are still bothering them, the other side can assert the defense that the person did not mitigate their damages. If a person has injuries they need to attempt to minimize them or treat them. They cannot go without treatment and then claim that their injuries have been worse or that they still exist.

Why People Fail to Follow Doctor’s Orders

It can hurt a person’s case if they do not follow doctor’s orders. Some people do not follow doctor’s orders because they do not want to be bothered with the time constraints or they did not want to pay the co-pay and other similar reasons. This is not a good reason to ignore doctor’s orders in these cases. A person in this situation should consult with a Fairfax attorney to understand how best to approach their medical treatment following their accident.

Real World Constraints

Some of the real world constraints of not following a doctor’s orders are that people do not want to give up their time or take time off work to go to a doctor. They still have injuries that are getting worse or staying the same for weeks or months. When they try to bring a lawsuit against someone else and claim that the injuries that they had from the accident are still present or are worse weeks or months later, if they fail to follow up with any medical treatment, then the value of those injuries is much less because the defendant can raise a defense that the person failed to mitigate their injuries.

If they can not have health insurance or ObamaCare coverage, they ask the doctor to hold his or her bills in advance until the conclusion of the lawsuit and collect payment at the end when the case is resolved or settled. This is known as an authorization and assignment practice.

If a person can not afford medical expenses, they can use their health insurance as a co-pay for the medical treatment or apply for Affordable Care Act coverage, also known as “ObamaCare” to use as a form of health insurance to pay for their medical treatment.

Impact on a Case

If a doctor tells someone to do certain things and they choose not to do them, they can not claim as a benefit that their injuries are still existing or have been persistent for certain months because they have done nothing to fix them. They do not get the benefit of having injuries that have lasted for several months or the inconvenience to their life for several months because they chose to do nothing. If a person fails to follow the doctor’s orders and does not do what was prescribed, that severely limits the amount of damages they can recover in a motor vehicle accident.

While a person might view following doctor’s orders or following up with other doctors as inconveniences or annoyances to their life, they have to balance that inconvenience or annoyance with the fact that they will not be able to recover for the full amount of their injuries.