6 Things You Can Do To Help Win Your Personal Injury Lawsuit - Part 4: Chiropractors

           This entry will be focused on the involvement of chiropractors in your medical treatment and how it relates to your personal injury case. It is very common for people who suffer injuries to their neck or back to seek treatment from a chiropractor after an incident. After all, chiropractors work on the neck and back and are often times more affordable than going to a hospital, M.D. or orthopedic physician. It is very important to understand the role chiropractic treatment plays in building a personal injury case and establishing injuries and damages.

            While chiropractic medicine has certainly made some incredible advances in the last several decades, it can be viewed skeptically by the judges, juries, and insurance companies. Remember, these are ultimately the ones who will need to be convinced in order to maximize the value of your case. Injured people will oftentimes focus on what seems to be the cheapest, quickest fix for their injuries, or rely on advice from friends or family and go visit a chiropractor. This often times will cause a problem later on in the case when trying to prove the extent of injuries and pain and suffering, as well as connecting the injuries to the incident.

            This is not to say chiropractic medicine is without its merit, nor is it to say that one should not visit a chiropractor to treat injuries involved in a personal injury case. Chiropractors can very often be extremely helpful in providing relief for injuries and any negative impacts on one’s personal injury case can be mitigated simply by obtaining an order for chiropractic treatment from your primary care physician, an orthopedic physician, or another medical doctor and periodically following up with this doctor throughout your chiropractic treatment.

            The final take home lesson is simply this: for purposes of improving your odds on winning your personal injury case, if you are going to see a chiropractor to treat your injuries, couple your chiropractor visits with routine follow up visits to your primary care doctor or orthopedic surgeon. Remember, your personal injury case begins immediately after the incident.

*This is attorney advertising, and is not intended to be taken as legal advice, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Any advice given in the preceding statement is given as general advice and is not intended to be relied upon as legal advice for any specific scenarios. For specific advice, or for answers to your questions, call Eckert & Smestad (312-789-4810) or call a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

The Importance of Following Up with Your Doctor

     Here is a situation that occurs all too often: Someone gets hurt.  They go to the emergency room, or their primary care doctor.  When the physician asks them about what is wrong, they play tough and give a general answer, and don't share all of the symptoms they are having.  Or the doctor instructs them to return in a week, or two weeks, but several weeks, even months go by, before they make an appointment and come back to see the doctor, complaining that the pain is still there.  Sometimes the doctor will instruct them to get an MRI, an X-ray, get physical therapy, and they put it off and never actually follow the doctor's orders.  There are three common problems illustrated in this scenario: 1. Failing to fully disclose all symptoms to the treating physician; 2. Failing to make follow up appointments with their physician timely; and 3. Failing to follow their physician's instructions.

     As if it isn't obvious, it is extremely important to listen to, and be completely honest with, your physician or hospital staff once an injury has occurred.  For many this is obvious.  However, very often life can get in the way of timely following up with your physician.  Failing to follow your doctor's instructions, make follow up appointments, make all complaints known to your doctor, or return for additional treatment when symptoms persist can have dire consequences, both for your health and any potential claim you may have for personal injuries.

     The most important reason that you should be fully upfront with your physicians, and follow the doctor's instructions, is for your own health.  A doctor can't feel what is going on in your body.  He or she doesn't know if you're having neck pain, or shoulder pain, or leg pain, or numbness, or whatever the symptom unless you tell your doctor.  And if he or she doesn't know about the symptom, he or she cannot possibly provide an accurate diagnosis or treatment to make the pain go away.  The longer an injury, no matter how slight you think it is, goes undiagnosed, the more likely it is to become a serious or chronic condition, requiring more invasive and extensive medical treatment to heal.

     If your doctor instructs you to return in a few weeks, or instructs you to seek physical therapy, or radiological tests, it is because he or she believes that this is necessary for your injuries to heal properly. If you don't follow your doctor's instructions, it is extremely likely that your injuries will not heal properly, and again, they could easily become serious or chronic conditions.

     The second reason to be fully upfront with your physician, and follow their instructions, is to protect your rights.  If you are injured, and the injury gives rise to a claim, you have certain rights inherent in that claim.  The medical records your physician creates when you visit are the evidence of your injury and of the treatment the injury required.  It is not enough to simply say "I was injured, pay me."  If it was that easy everyone in the country would be broke, for constantly paying out on injury claims.  Injured parties have the burden to prove they were injured, to what extent they were injured, and that the medical treatment they received was reasonable for their injuries.

     When a claim is made, the insurance company investigating the claim will be looking for any reason they can find to either not pay or pay less than they should.  This is their business.  One of the most cited excuses given by insurance companies for denying claims, or refusing to pay the full value of a claim, is because of gaps in the medical treatment (meaning weeks going by without a follow up appointment), inconsistencies in the patient's complaints to their physicians, and failure to follow a physician's instructions.  Unfortunately, the reason this is effective is because juries generally don't look upon these things favorably.  To a jury when a reasonable person is injured (reasonable person being the legal standard applied by juries to most civil cases), he or she will be completely honest with their physician and report ALL of their symptoms.  To a jury a reasonable person will continue to make regular appointments with their doctors until their symptoms have completely healed.  To a jury a reasonable person will listen to their doctor and follow their doctor's instructions completely.  Whatever reason you may have for not being completely honest, or not following your doctor's instructions, or not making timely follow up appointments, a jury will likely not pay attention.  They have already heard what they need.

    When you are injured, your job is to heal.  Do your job and let your doctor help you.  When you are injured, the insurance companies job is to take diminish your claim.  Don't do their job for them.  As always, if you are injured and you believe it was due to the negligence of another party, make sure you speak with a licensed and competent attorney.

*This is attorney advertising, and is not intended to be taken as legal advice, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Any advice given in the preceding statement is given as general advice and is not intended to be relied upon as legal advice for any specific scenarios. For specific advice, or for answers to your questions, call Eckert & Smestad (312-789-4810) or call a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

Staten Island Man Dies After Potential Police Brutality Incident

     There is no question that Police Officers, in general, are brave, respectable individuals who put their lives on the line to protect us all. Unfortunately, there are a small number of police officers who have abused the authority and power given to them and hurt, or even killed, the citizens they were sworn to protect. These incidents, however uncommon, can be so disturbing that the stories spread throughout the community and can result in severe distrust for members of the police force. Recently, an incident occurred in New York City which has brought the discussion of police brutality.

     On July 17, 2014 a 43-year old Staten Island man, Eric Garner, died after an encounter with New York City police officers. A number of NYPD officers approached Garner regarding an investigation into the illegal sale of cigarettes. Witnesses stated that an argument broke out between Garner and the officers, and at some point one of the officers placed the asthmatic Garner in a chokehold. Garner reportedly fell to the ground and passed out after telling the officer he could not breath. He was pronounced dead later that evening at Richmond University Medical Center, although the cause of death has yet to be determined. The incident was filmed by witnesses, a copy of the video (Warning: May be disturbing) can be found here.

     During a press conference with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, Commissioner Bratton stated that it was against NYPD policy to use chokeholds, even when interacting with individuals who may be resisting arrest. This incident has prompted an investigation into the cause of Garner's death and the possible violation of Garner's civil rights by the officers. Some have accused these officers of using excessive force against Garner, and the incident has sparked anger in the community against the NYPD.

    Regardless of the result of the investigation into the Garner incident, there are certainly incidents in which police officers have abused their power and violated citizens' civil rights. If you, a friend or a loved one has been the victim of excessive force, false arrest, illegal search and seizures, or any other civil rights violation by a member of the police, it is recommended that they talk to a licensed and competent attorney.

*This is attorney advertising, and is not intended to be taken as legal advice, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Any advice given in the preceding statement is given as general advice and is not intended to be relied upon as legal advice for any specific scenarios. For specific advice, or for answers to your questions, call Eckert & Smestad (312-789-4810) or call a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

   

Safe Driving Tips During a Storm

     The summer is finally here, and it brings with it a mass of warm and violent summer storms.  Driving during a rain/hail/thunder storm can be just as dangerous as driving on snow and ice.  What makes driving during a summer storm even more hazardous, however, is that many people don't quite fully realize the danger.  Rain and hailstorms can bring hazards in the form of lowered visibility, increased distance required to stop a vehicle, the potential to hydroplane, and a host of other dangers.

     The first tip for safe driving during a storm is, obviously, plan your trip ahead of time to avoid storms if at all possible.  However, even the best of us will find ourselves from time to time driving down a highway during a torrential downpour.  This is where these tips will become useful.

 - Make sure your headlights are turned on
 - Turn on your windshield wipers
 - Slow down. Don't brake hard, instead take your foot off the gas and slowly reduce your speed. Braking too fast on wet roads can cause you to lose control of your vehicle
 - Give yourself a greater distance to brake
 - If necessary, pull your vehicle over to the side of the road or into a covered garage or underpass until the storm passes. If you pull over to the side of the road, make sure to activate your emergency flashers
 - Keep an eye out for hazards on the road, including downed power lines, debris, puddles, and other vehicles.
 - Finally, keep your radio tuned to local news or weather reports for news of the storm and emergency notifications.

     Drive safe! Should anything happen, take care of yourself, get any medical attention necessary, and contact a licensed attorney in your area.
   

*This is attorney advertising, and is not intended to be taken as legal advice, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Any advice given in the preceding statement is given as general advice and is not intended to be relied upon as legal advice for any specific scenarios. For specific advice, or for answers to your questions, call Eckert & Smestad (312-789-4810) or call a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

New Year's Resolutions 5 of 5: Get Fit - Injuries at the Gym

     For Eckert & Smestad's fifth and final blog in our New Year's Resolution series, we focused on another very popular resolution: getting fit.  Many people have seen this phenomenon - beginning around January 1 or 2 every year, gym memberships increase drastically, gyms become more crowded, and personal trainers' schedules start booking up.  People who may have little or no experience with personal training and modern fitness equipment venture into the world of fitness, and unfortunately, this can result in severe health risks and injuries.  The way the law treats a person who is injured while exercising at a gym or with a personal trainer can be very different from the way the law treats a person who is injured in another situation.

     Typically, when a person is injured on someone else's property or due to another's negligence, the injured party may recover financial compensation from the property owner or negligent party for the injuries sustained and the effects the injury has had on his or her life.  According to the law in Illinois, one must first prove: 1. that the property owner or negligent party owed the claimant a duty of care, 2. the property owner or negligent party breached, or failed to satisfy, this duty of care, 3. the claimant suffered injuries, and 4. the property owner's/negligent party's breach of duty was the cause of the injuries suffered by the claimant.  These same basic legal principles apply to injuries suffered while at a gym or under the guidance of a personal trainer.  However, there are some very important differences to note.

     First, most gyms have some sort of disclaimer covering its members and customers for injuries they may sustain while at the gym or using personal trainers employed by the gym.  The case of Hussein v. LA Fitness (2013 IL App. 1st) (2013) upheld the applicability of disclaimers to avoid liability on the part of the gym for injuries sustained by its members.  In lay terms, this means that if you sign a gym's disclaimer, and are subsequently injured while at the same gym, the disclaimer is a valid defense the gym can use to avoid having to compensate you for your injuries.  There may be a way to overcome this defense, however, it will require significantly more culpable action, such as possibly willful and wanton, or even intentional conduct, on the part of the gym or its employees.  This is the same with the use of personal trainers.  It is advisable that one reads any disclaimers thoroughly before signing, so that one understands their rights.

     Second, in Illinois and many other states, property owners and negligent party's may assert a defense known as comparative negligence.  This defense alleges that the injured party's own negligence contributed to his/her injuries, at least in part, and any recovery obtained by the injured party should be reduced by the comparative amount of negligence attributed to the injured party.  For example, if you are injured while using a particular piece of gym equipment which you allege was defective, and you were recovered, say, $100,000.00 in financial compensation for these injuries at trial.  But if the gym owner can prove that you were using the equipment improperly, and that this improper usage was 25% of the cause of your injuries, the gym owner would only be required to pay you $75,000.00 ($100,000.00 minus 25%).

     There is also another important aspect of this defense to be aware of.  In this same example, say the gym owner can prove that this improper usage was 51% or more of the cause of your injuries, the gym owner will not be required to compensate you at all.  Again, this is the same with the use of personal trainers.  It is advisable that one knows how to properly use all gym equipment, perform all exercises, and acts with due care for one's own safety while at the gym or using a personal trainer.

*This is attorney advertising, and is not intended to be taken as legal advice, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Any advice given in the preceding statement is given as general advice and is not intended to be relied upon as legal advice for any specific scenarios. For specific advice, or for answers to your questions, call Eckert & Smestad (312-789-4810) or call a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.