How Over-treating Can Hurt Your Injury Case

One of the most critical elements in any legal claim, whether civil or criminal, is the credibility of the testifying witness or claimant.  Injury claims are not an exception to this rule.  Any good personal injury lawyer should urge his or her client to not get more treatment than they need, or not to continue getting the treatment which is clearly ineffective and does not help their pain.

An honest, reasonable victim will likely recover more and sooner for his injuries than someone who appears to be exaggerating and making more out of his injury than they really are. This is exactly why it is so important to make sure that you do not receive more treatment than you should. Some doctors and especially the chiropractors are tempted to provide more treatment than necessary to the injured patients, especially if these doctors work on a lien basis, so that they can receive a larger portion of the settlement at the end. The problem is that once the claims adjuster or the insurance company's lawyer receives an unreasonably high bill from a doctor or a chiropractor, he will necessarily suspect some kind of exaggeration on the part of the injured.  This will likely result in delay of the settlement process, casting doubt on your entire claim - something that an injured person should avoid when dealing with insurance companies.

Being reasonable and honest about your injuries and your pain, without exaggerating your symptoms is the best strategy to recover a fair compensation for the injury accident that you were involved in, whether you settle your case early on, or at mediation, or right before trial, or whether you have to testify at trial in front of the jury. No one is more generous to someone who appears to depict their situation as worse than it really is, and a typical jury responds very negatively when they have any suspicion that the plaintiff in an injury case exaggerates his or her injuries. 

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