Insurance companies have inserted elements of friction into that process, in order to discourage those that want to file a claim for a minor injury. That tactic represents the companies’ effort to weed out some of the claimants that fail to appreciate the monetary value for fair and full coverage of their losses.
A small injury does not always remain a minor injury.
The insurance industry realizes that any injury could get worse, if it did not receive prompt treatment. Still, that same industry insists on categorizing injuries, and calling some of them “minor.” The insurance company equates mitigation of an injury with an accident victim’s visit to a doctor’s office, hospital emergency room or clinic, within the 24-hour period that has followed the accident.
At that point, a physician that knows nothing about the victim’s medical history sees the victim. Yet the insurance company stands ready to accept the physician’s observations and comments. Those comments could hint at the existence of a minor injury.
The lawyer’s role
A good injury lawyer in Kitchener should be able to help an injured client to schedule a visit with a specialist or an expert in the diagnosis of injuries. In that way, an attorney could help a client to have his or her injury placed in a category other than the one described as “minor.”
An attorney could also seek an extension of the deadline for filing a lawsuit, if the injured victim were a child or a teenager. That would allow more time for the emergence of symptoms, if the child or teen had sustained an injury with slow-to-appear symptoms.
Even if a child or teen was not showing any symptoms, that same young person should pay a visit to a family doctor or a pediatrician. Otherwise, if some symptom were to make an appearance at a later date, the same doctor or pediatrician would not recognize what might have caused that particular symptom.
There are some elements of friction that insurance companies would like to eliminate.
One of those elements concerns the rights of an injured child or teen. An extension of the deadline for filing a lawsuit gives an apparently minor injury more time in which to develop into something more serious. Then, as the date on which the claimant could choose to file a lawsuit gets closer, the insurance company might suddenly want to settle with the claimant/victim.
As an injury that had appeared minor develops into something more serious, the victim/claimant has more reason to demand more money from the insurance company. Personal injury lawyers stand ready to help their injured clients obtain a fair and full compensation, whether by agreeing to a settlement or pursuing a lawsuit.