It's a simple question right? How long should treat for your car or truck crash injuries?
The answer or answers aren't quite that easy. Logically the number one answer is until you are well again. Sometimes victims of personal injury don't get completely well again ever. So, what do you do then? Treat forever or stop randomly? There are a lot of possibilities and we will attempt to address a few.
The easiest is treating until you are back to pre-accident fitness or as the legal world calls it " maximum medical improvement". This " easy" option still can run afoul of insurance company doctors and their notions of the length of appropriate medical treatment but nonetheless remains the gold standard.
The next logical step is treating until your healthcare providers opine that they can't do anything more for you whether or not you have attained maximum medical improvement. The difficulty with this avenue is discerning when your healthcare providers really have pursued all appropriate options and when they haven't appropriately diagnosed your underlying problems.
Regrettably this does happen and is an occasion where having an experienced lawyer is valuable in discussing options. Sometimes a referral to a neurosurgeon or undertaking an MRI or other more sophisticated diagnostic test can be clarifying.
If all of this diagnosis suggests that there is nothing more to be done and your symptoms persist, one should seek input from the doctors that the underlying pathology is " permanent" in nature. Permanency is often where jurors find it possible to award substantial damages for pain and suffering
The next step contemplates indefinite treatment or maintenance and obviously this can be expensive, time consuming and is never popular with the at-fault driver's liability insurance company. It is however sometimes the best course of action especially if the proposed alternative is a major surgery. This too is likely a permanent injury and requires explanation from the treating healthcare providers.
The bottom line is that once your case has settled or gone to verdict there is no going back for more. So listen to your doctors, follow their recommendations and if you are concerned that you are not improving get a second opinion. Having an experienced, skillful and trustworthy lawyer isn't a bad idea either.
