Hey, it's Loyd Bourgeois, I'm a personal injury attorney with offices in Luling and Metairie, Louisiana.
I was reading on Facebook a question by an individual who remains nameless, who was asking for some legal advice, and the first thing I always kind of say is, look, just call an attorney, call their offices.
Most attorney's offices will, I know our office will, answer some questions to help point you in the right direction.
This individual's question is one we kind of get pretty often. It was interesting to see it on Facebook. The individual had been in a crash, had not gone to seek medical treatment yet, and it had been a few weeks, three weeks to a month, back was still really in a lot of pain. He was still having a lot of issues.
The pain was kind of radiating down to their hips. The crash was somebody else's fault, and so he was asking whether or not he should even make a claim.
And so obviously each case is going to be fact-dependent, but our typical advice in this situation is one: just go to the doctor, and get it checked out.
I mean, obviously, if you're in pain, you're hurting, especially if it's been two, three weeks, a month, you may have some serious issues that you need to get taken care of, and it's going to be important for your health to get to a doctor.
Beyond that, from a legal perspective, yes, you have a claim.
Will the insurance company try to use the fact that you've waited for a few weeks before going to the doctor? Yeah, they will, but it's something you're going to have to deal with.
If you were seriously hurt in a crash, and look, if you're still feeling pain, stiffness, and it's radiating down your legs a month later, I'm going to say that's pretty significant and pretty serious. It's worth getting it checked out. It's worth talking to an attorney. It's worth making the claim because we don't know exactly what's going on medically with you until you get into a doctor, and you really need to have the person who caused this pain, this injury, this significant injury to you to be held responsible.
Otherwise, you're going to maybe be dealing with this pain for the rest of your life with no way to hold the party responsible if you don't start the process now. So, yes, even if it's two, three weeks, or a month after the crash occurred, get to a doctor, talk to an attorney, and make the claim.
It's better to deal with those issues while in the process of a claim than to just ignore them and never make the claim. That's our opinion on that situation. If you'd like to talk to me about it in a little more detail, please feel free to reach out. Give us a call at 985-240-9773 or use the chat feature below.