At Clark and Steinhorn, LLC we have handled literally thousands of Maryland vehicular crash claims and certain recurrent themes shine through. Here are five " Rules of the Road" for sucessful claims.
1). Don't delay. Don't delay getting medical attention. Don't delay notifying your insurer of the crash. Don't delay finding an experienced attorney. Don't delay telling your employer if you are going to miss time from work and don't delay getting your crash damage estimated.
2). If you are injured get medically evaluated asap. While you are being evaluated make sure you specifically describe each part of your body that was injured. If you are uncertain about something being hurt make sure you mention it just to be sure.
3). Immediately document the day to day impact the crash and accompanying injuries have on you in some sort of writing. You can call it a journal, diary, calendar or whatever but make sure you record post-crash events so you don't forget that you missed your daughter's birthday party or whatever other event. If you couldn't sleep for two weeks due to an inability to find a comforatble sleeping position, that is important and something to which jurors can relate.
4). Keep close track of the economic effects of your crash. Parking costs and mileage to healthcare providers add up. Or Uber costs getting to doctors or work while your car is being repaired. If you miss out on overtime you would otherwise have undertaken make sure you can document for example " My boss called me on Friday June 5, 2022 to see if I could do a job on Saturday at the mall, I had to say no due to injuries or medical appointmets.
5). Keep track of witnesses who might help paint the picture at trial of how the crash occurred or how your injuries affected you. Co-workers can provide valuable testimony concerning the fact that when you returned to work you were in obvious pain. Neighbors or church members can do the same.
Sadly with insurance companies fighting payment of fair compensation in virtually every case, one must plan for trial from the immediate aftermath of the crash until the case is either settled or tried.
