Introduction
No one expects to get in a car accident, and if you do get in a car accident, you don’t expect it to affect your life. But…the truth of the matter is that a car accident can affect your life in many ways. At Debbie Taussig Law, we understand that car accidents are always unexpected and often upset our clients’ lives for weeks, months, and even years. We also know that we can help our clients throughout their healing process by taking the burden of fighting the insurance companies off their shoulders, finding them the right type of treatment for their injuries, negotiating the financials associated with their injuries, and getting them compensated for their injuries.
1. Long-term and Permanent Injuries
The most serious injuries are long-term or permanent injuries. These injuries can include, but are not limited to, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), concussions, neck injuries, back injuries, spinal cord injuries, burns, scars, or amputations. Oftentimes, clients do not realize that they have a long-term or permanent injury when they first come to us. However, through regular medical treatment and time, it becomes clear that their injuries are not getting better, even though plenty of time has passed since their car crash.
We can help our clients work through their long-term and permanent injuries by directing them to the right type of treatment. For example, we had one client who complained of whiplash symptoms that were not getting better with physical therapy and time. We recommended that the client see a doctor who specializes in this area of medicine, and it was discovered that the client needed neck surgery, and without that surgery, the client could face paralysis if he was in another car crash.
2. Short-term Injuries
Short-term injuries may not last as long, but that does not mean they are less painful. When clients are dealing with daily pain, it can affect so much of their lives. Some clients require the help of pain management doctors; others find relief through chiropractic work or massage therapy. At Debbie Taussig Law, we can help our clients figure out the best course of treatment for their short-term injury, as well as take on the stress of handling the personal injury claim.
3. Emotional Effects after a Car Accident
The emotional effects of a car accident can be the most surprising to some people. One of the most common things we hear from our clients is that they fear riding in the car after their car crash. For some, it may mean that they are afraid to even get in the car after their car accident. For others, it may mean that certain intersections cause them emotional turmoil. This is often referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Other ways your car accident can affect you emotionally include depression due to loss of enjoyment of activities you used to enjoy, financial difficulties, and loss of family or friends. Beyond fear of riding in the car, other emotional issues that may arise as a result of your car crash include sleep issues, anxiety, flashbacks, or shame.
4. Less Time
A non-tangible, but still shocking way, your car accident can affect you is the reduced amount of time that you have available to you in your daily life. After your car accident, you will spend a lot of time on the phone with the insurance company, dealing with the damage to your car. You will also have to spend time making appointments with doctors, therapists, masseuses, and other medical providers. All of this takes time and energy. Once those appointments are made, you will also spend countless hours driving to and from appointments, trying to heal from your injuries.
At Debbie Taussig Law, we can help. As soon as you hire us, we send the insurance companies a Letter of Representation. This means that the insurance companies must communicate with us, instead of you. Clients find that this significantly reduces the time they spend dealing with their accident. If the insurance company is not being cooperative in repairing your car, we can help our clients with the property damage aspect of their insurance claim, if needed.
5. Financial Struggles
Financial struggles are another unexpected way that a car crash can affect your life. Bills can become overwhelming very fast. There can be missed work, loss of transportation, mounting medical bills, and decreased credit score if bills go to collections.
We always try to help our clients get the treatment they need in order to heal, and we understand that sometimes there is not enough money to pay for medical bills. In those cases, we try to help our clients get creative financing. This can be from a third-party agency, or with a lien from their doctor. We will also try to negotiate for a reduction on your medical bills, and if a payment plan is available to them, we will inform you of that, if it is needed.
6. Loss of Quality of Life
When you are injured in a car accident, every aspect of your life is affected, especially your quality of life. You may be unable to do the activities that you used to enjoy. This may trickle into other areas of your life. We have had cases where clients were avid hikers or skiers. Because of their injuries, they cannot hike or ski. The result is they lost contact with entire friend groups or lost valuable time with family. As the others go off on their next adventure, our clients are stuck at home, going to physical therapy, and watching their lives spiral downward.
While we cannot get your life back for you, we can try to help in other ways. By directing our clients to the right kind of medical treatment and encouraging them to follow their doctors’ orders and getting them compensated for their injuries, we hope that all of our clients heal and get their lives back.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the ways that a car accident can affect you. Each of these things go into your personal injury claim. While we can’t take away your pain, we can fight the insurance companies and get you compensated for your pain and suffering, lost wages, medical bills, and loss of quality of life.
If you have been injured in a car accident in the Boulder/Denver metropolitan area, Debbie Taussig Law can help you. Call us today for a free claim evaluation at 303-442-0176. Let us take on the burdens you are facing and the stress you are dealing with so that you can heal.
