In a previous article, I discussed that defendant insurance companies may not believe a person is injured if she has gaps in her medical treatment or if she did not treat with a doctor after an accident. The same is true if an accident victim waits too long after an accident to seek medical treatment.
In cases where an accident victim waits days, weeks or months to seek medical treatment after an accident, a common defense raised by an insurance company is that the victim failed to mitigate her damages by not seeking medical treatment quickly; this means that the defendants will assert that the victim’s injuries would not be as serious if the victim would have sought medical treatment sooner. In such cases, the insurance company will blame the accident victim alleging the injury would have resolved quicker had the victim seen a doctor quicker.
This defense does not always work. In McKnight v. McCastle, 2004-2437 (La. App. 1 Cir. 12/22/05), 928 So. 2d 45, the court stated: An accident victim “does not fail to mitigate his or her damages simply by delaying to seek medical help when the delay is not unreasonable and did not aggravate injury.”
The question becomes: Was the accident victim’s decision to wait to seek medical treatment reasonable? What is reasonable to one person may not be reasonable to another. So, instead of a waiting to see a doctor after, an accident victim should seek medical treatment as soon as the victim realizes an injury has occurred.
Reasonable excuses for not seeing a doctor after an accident may be: 1) could not afford treatment; 2) did not have transportation because vehicle was totaled in the accident; and, 3) waited three days after an accident to see if symptoms would go away on their own. These are common reasons to wait to seek treatment after an accident, and some judges and jurors may find them reasonable. But why take the chance?
If you have suffered injury from an accident and have questions about UM coverage, contact Law Office of Donald D’Aunoy Jr., LLC today for a FREE consultation.
