Car Accident Lawyer
Municipal leaders walk a difficult line between keeping taxes low and providing services that keep their communities safe. When budgets are tight, road maintenance often suffers.
One of the most important duties of a street department is to assure that trees and bushes are trimmed when they obstruct stop signs and traffic lights. Collisions are inevitable when drivers cannot see signs that govern driving behavior.
When the failure to trim foliage contributes to a traffic accident because a sign or signal is obstructed, injury victims usually have an opportunity to bring a claim against the municipality that should have corrected the problem. A car accident lawyer can explain the relatively short deadlines that most states impose upon accident victims to give a notice of their claim to the responsible local government.
Time Limit to Go to a Doctor After a Car Accident Caused by an Overgrown Tree or Bush
In addition to the deadline for giving a notice of claim, there is deadline for bringing a lawsuit based on the municipality’s negligence. That deadline is imposed by a statute of limitations. While the deadline varies from state to state, all states require a case to be settled or a suit to be filed before the deadline arrives. The failure to take either action results in a loss of the right to obtain compensation.
Accident victims often ask whether there is also a deadline for seeing a doctor. The legal answer is that no state requires accident victims to visit a doctor. The practical answer is that injury victims should get medical attention as soon as they can.
Serious injuries, including organ damage, brain injuries, and internal bleeding, can be fatal if they are not treated immediately. Whenever a paramedic recommends emergency care, it is foolish to decline an ambulance ride to the hospital.
While not all injuries are life-threatening, any injury that causes noticeable pain should receive medical attention. Left untreated, an injury may become aggravated by the activities of daily living. An injury that would have healed with treatment can begin to cause nagging pain that lasts for years.
Prompt treatment improves health outcomes. Many car accident injuries involve soft tissues, the structures that hold the body together. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments often tear or stretch during collisions. Physicians can offer immediate relief to reduce swelling and to stabilize joints, but a full recovery often depends on committing to follow an ongoing treatment plan.
Physical therapy sessions are time consuming. Some of the exercises are painful. But missing appointments or discontinuing treatment only prolongs, and often exacerbates, the pain and muscle weakness that car accidents cause. It is therefore essential not only to seek healthcare but to follow a treatment plan until an accident victim is discharged from care.
Settlements Improve After Seeing a Doctor Soon After a Car Accident Caused by an Overgrown Tree or Bush
Most insurance claims for car accident injuries settle. They settle more quickly and for more money when an accident victim obtains prompt medical care and follows through on all treatment recommendations.
Accident victims who delay a diagnosis and treatment, on the other hand, usually reduce the settlement value of their cases. Insurance companies argue that an accident victim who does not seek immediate treatment probably didn’t need it. When the victim finally visits a doctor, insurance companies speculate that the treatment is for an unrelated injury.
When injury victims stop treating, insurance companies argue that the injury must have healed. If treatment later resumes, they suggest that the treatment is for a new injury. Since juries might agree with those arguments, injury victims who delay or discontinue treatment often settle for less than full compensation.
