Personal Injury Attorneys in Michigan Should Seek All Tests & Treatments to Verify & Document Clients' Injuries

One of the many advantages auto accident injury victims have when they’re represented by a personal injury lawyer is that they have an advocate with legal clout to ensure they get the medical testing and treatment necessary. Experienced  personal injury attorneys in Michigan are familiar with a wide variety of accident-related injuries and the types testing that will document them as well as with the treatments that are often needed to recover from them.

Why not rely on your doctor to order tests and recommend treatment? Ultimately, your doctor will have to order tests and treatment, but physicians are not always motivated to order all the potential tests that can verify an accident victim’s injuries. Although Michigan’s no-fault insurance system is set up to pay for all of an injury victim’s medical costs related to a car accident, many insurance companies require a physician’s referral for tests and treatments but then penalize those physicians for ordering expensive tests and treatments, especially if less expensive testing and treatments aren’t tried first.

Often, without representation by personal injury attorneys in Michigan, accident victims can go months or even years before getting the diagnostic tests they need to verify and document an injury when the injury isn’t readily apparent, such as herniated spinal disk or closed-head brain injury. During the time that the insurance and medical care system takes getting to those tests, the injury victim isn’t getting the care that he or she requires or must fund the tests themselves and then fight the insurance company for reimbursement. This is expressly contrary to the goals of Michigan’s no-fault insurance laws. However, intervention by personal injury attorneys in Michigan may be able to speed this process up.

Personal Injury Attorneys in Michigan Verify & Document Injuries for Successful Third-Party Lawsuits

Another reason personal injury attorneys in Michigan should advocate for any and all testing and treatment relevant to a client’s injuries is to secure documentation of those injuries when their impact is serious enough to warrant a third-party lawsuit.

In a third-party lawsuit, the injury victim sues the at-fault driver of a car accident for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, loss of joy of life, and loss of consortium that result from injury-related impairments. However, in Michigan, because of no-fault insurance laws, third-party lawsuits are only permitted if the injury or impairment meets certain indicators of severity, known as threshold injuries.

In some cases, the seriousness of injuries can be demonstrated through demonstrating restrictions in movement, spinal alignment (i.e. lordosis/kyphosis) and similar means.  Unfortunately, success with this approach is rare. To meet the legal requirement that the injury be “objectively manifested”, the injury must be either observable to the naked eye or documented through medical testing.

Since the goal of an accident victim’s personal injury attorney is to obtain the fullest and most fair recovery possible for the injured person, it is necessary, when the injury is severe and impairment significant, for personal injury attorneys in Michigan to document the injury as completely and thoroughly as possible. Thorough documentation is used to combat claims by defense attorneys that the injury doesn’t meet the threshold required for a third-party lawsuit and to convince a jury of the injury’s severity and its impact on the victim’s lifestyle and mental state.

Some diagnostic tests that can help verify and document an accident victim’s injuries when they aren’t readily apparent include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalograms (EEG), electromyograms (EMG), SPECT imaging, PET scans, thermography, and dynamic motion x-rays. These are expensive tests that some physicians may be reluctant to order and may require the advocacy of victims' personal injury attorneys in Michigan. In some cases, personal injury firms have been known to front the cost of such tests in order to document the injury and reimburse their expense from the victim’s recovery award.

The Detroit auto accidents of Sachs Waldman, P.C., can assist in getting the testing and treatment automobile accident victims need for their injuries and help them obtain insurance benefits and recovery of damages appropriate for their injuries. If you’ve been injured in a Michigan car accident, call our personal injury attorneys in Michigan at 1-800-638-6722 to schedule a free consultation.