There are a number of issues that can weaken your Ventura County personal injury claim. For instance, if you share a degree of culpability, insurance companies may try to suggest that you were largely to blame. If you suffer an injury subsequent to the accident in question, similarly, the defendant’s insurer will try to use this to their advantage and offer a lower settlement.
Consider this hypothetical: you are riding your bicycle to work when a car runs you off the road. You sustain injuries to your arm, neck, and lower back. You are then treated by a physician for several months and then find yourself in a second accident. What is worse, the arm, neck, and lower back are once again injured. When you suffer a second accident in which the same area of your body is hurt, the insurance company may place more value on the second one, which just happens not to be a part of the claim. This can especially occur when your doctor can’t differentiate between the injuries you suffered in the first accident and those in the second.
Given the same hypothetical, if you subsequently injure other parts of your body from those in the first, the insurance company will try to argue that the second, unrelated accident aggravated your initial injuries.
Your Ventura County personal injury lawyer can undermine the insurer’s ruse to avoid paying you a fair settlement by gathering evidence. First, he should interview any witnesses who can attest to the differences in your condition after the second accident. Then he should look for medical records which show you did not complain about the injury to the same area of the body after the second accident. Finally, he should ask your treating physician to testify to the differences in your condition after each accident.
Even if the insurer tries to argue down the damages you are due in your personal injury case, it will be very useful to hire a lawyer. Contact Ventura County personal injury lawyer Gary Mitchell for an evaluation of your claim.
Gary Mitchell, Attorney at Law
Westlake Village Personal Injury Lawyer
4195 East Thousand Oaks Blvd Suite 240A
Westlake Village, California 91362
Phone: (805) 449-4243
Fax: (805) 449-4245
