After a car accident, several important time deadlines and limitations can arise. This can sometimes seem overwhelming for someone who is injured in a car accident. That person may find that his or her ability to perform everyday tasks is curtailed. He or she might also notice all sorts of mail from different insurance companies, and phone calls from various insurance adjusters.
Someone injured in a car accident may know they require medical treatment but delay seeking it.
What Are Some Risks of Delaying Medically Necessary Treatment?
One risk is that an insurance company may argue that the delay, or gap, in treatment breaks the causal relationship between the motor vehicle accident and the medical condition. For example, some insurance companies may try to claim that because the injured person did not seek the necessary treatment as directed, their injuries were not serious and did not actually warrant treatment. Even though the injured person may have experienced debilitating pain and limitations in the intervening period, the insurance company may claim that this pain and limitations were not appropriately documented.
This sort of argument is often seen after the injured person files a lawsuit. If the injured person must demonstrate that his or her injuries qualify as a “serious injury,” the opposing attorney may invoke a “gap-in-treatment” argument, which may require the injured person to come forward with a “reasonable explanation” for the gap. The experienced accident attorneys at Metro Law Offices, have extensive experience helping injured motorists after Minnesota car accidents, and have successfully helped people overcome these kinds of arguments.
