Why Honesty Is Always The Best Policy

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Why Honesty Is Always The Best Policy
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• After a car accident or other sustained injury,
  you might be in shock.
• You might not remember everything about what
  happened.

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• You might even be tempted to hide how you are
  feeling, in case it impacts your insurance rates,
  or on the other side of the equation, hide any
  improvements in your health, in case it impacts
  the extent of your claim.

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• The only thing you can do in a situation where
  you are injured is to be honest with the people
  working with you to resolve your injuries and
  your claims.
• Anything less than 100 honesty is going to hurt
  you in the long run.

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Be Honest With Your Health Care Team

• In the initial hours after a serious accident
  and injury, you might not be aware of the extent
  of your injuries, or even remember salient
  details of how you got to that state. Over time,
  you will recall more and you will feel more.

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• The only way your doctors and other healthcare
  practitioners can help you is if you are honest
  about how youre feeling, every step of the way.
• Even if you think what you have to report isnt
  important.

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• After all, our bodies work in mysterious ways
  and every detail matters when it comes to finding
  the path to feeling better.
• I have often had a client say but I didnt
  think it was important at the time, in regard to
  symptom that turned out to be very important
  after all.

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Continue Being Honest For The Long Term

• Dealing with negotiations of a personal injury
  claim can takes upwards of a year or two. In that
  time, your health status will change, and
  hopefully for the better.

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• Hiding those changes, or minimizing them, to
  your doctor(s) and your lawyer, out of fear that
  these improvements will negatively impact the
  outcome of your claim, is not the way to move
  forward.

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For one thing, youll get caught.

• Insurance companies are increasing their use of
  surveillanceboth physical and digitalto monitor
  what claimants are doing. Unless youre an MI6
  calibre secret agent, you will give something
  away and lying about your status will make the
  outcome of your claim far worse.

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• For example, if youve said you cant maintain
  your yard because of your injuries, but then on
  the ONE day you try to see if you can cut the
  grass, the insurance company takes video of your
  attempt, they might try to skew that information
  to show that you are able to return to certain
  activities.

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• If you report to your lawyer and doctor that you
  tried to garden on this date, but that you
  suffered that night and for days afterwards,
  having overextended yourself, your medical team
  can help you and your lawyer can better defend
  you.

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• Or what about if you claim that you cant return
  to the tasks of your job but your Facebook feed
  (that you havent made private) has pictures of
  your dancing at your best friends wedding?

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• Your lawyer can argue for you, claiming that
  your occasional bouts of feeling better do not
  signal a full recovery, but they can only do this
  if you are 100 honest about your current status.

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• The same is true for your medical team. Whether
  its a physiotherapist or OT (occupational
  therapist), a psychologist or just your family
  doctor, you have to be open and honest with
  whats going on with your current status.

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• They cannot prescribe the best treatments for
  you if you dont. While you may want to see a
  positive outcome of your claim, this is not why
  you are living your life! The purpose of healing
  is to be healthy and mobile again, productive and
  happy, and its important to always remember this.

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Forewarned Is Forearmed

• This should be every personal injury lawyers
  motto.
• Its such a simple concept, but having the
  correct information at the right time can make
  all the difference in negotiating a personal
  injury settlement.
• Sharing information with your lawyer that could
  negatively impact your claim is not easy.

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• You might be afraid or ashamed to be honest
  about having gotten drunk at a party, hence those
  few photos of you doing the lambada on your
  friends (public) Instagram.

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• But if you share this information with your
  lawyer ahead of time, they can get out in front
  of the issue, framing a cogent response to any
  queries, rather than being blindsided by the
  insurance company during negotiations.

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• Personal injury lawyers work on a contingency
  basis, so were not getting paid unless you do.
• With that in mind, you have to look at your
  relationship with your lawyer as a partnership.
• We are putting our name and reputation on the
  line by taking you on as a client and cant
  represent you to the best of our abilities if you
  arent honest with us.

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• My advice to clients? Tell me everything,
  whether or not you think I need to know, stay
  true to the therapy plan that your doctor has set
  out for you and dont do a lot of talking on
  social media.

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• With these three tips in your back pocket, you
  will be able to work through your claim and come
  to a resolution that will help you move on with
  your life.