Medical records play a critical role in motorcycle crash cases. They confirm a connection between your accident and your injuries, and they are evidence of the financial and physical losses you’ve sustained.
A Fort Myers motorcycle accident lawyer can explain how medical documentation can help build your case when preparing to file a personal injury lawsuit. Medical records play a necessary part in strengthening your compensation claim if you decide to go to court to fight for your rights.
Every Medical Record Related To Your Motorcycle Crash Injury Is Important
From the day you are injured in a motorcycle accident, you will start to accumulate expenses related to your medical care. For instance:
- Ambulance rides
- Emergency room visits
- X-rays, CT scans, and other diagnostic tests
- Doctors’ fees
- Medications
- Specialist care
- Surgeries
- Treatment
- Physical therapy
These and other costs, such as aftercare, medical equipment, or home modifications account for a significant portion of your financial losses related to the crash. Keeping copies of your medical records may help you recover compensation for those losses when you file a motorcycle accident lawsuit.
How The Continuity Of Medical Care Can Affect Your Case’s Outcome
Medical evidence can establish that your injuries resulted from the crash instead of something else. Making that connection is key to your personal injury claim. It’s important to seek medical attention as soon as possible after a motorcycle accident, even if you initially believe you are not seriously injured.
Some injuries can take days or even weeks to show symptoms. If medical professionals don’t examine you promptly, you may have a gap in your records, making it difficult for your Fort Myers personal injury lawyer to prove the link between the accident and your injuries.
It’s equally important to attend every medical appointment and follow through with rehab and therapy as your healthcare team indicates. If you skip appointments or recommended treatments, these actions may affect your ability to recover the financial compensation you deserve.
Proving Negligence May Not Matter If You Can’t Prove Damages In Your Fort Myers Motorcycle Crash Lawsuit
If you can prove the at-fault party’s negligence caused your motorcycle accident and resulting injuries, documentation of your medical costs may help you recover a fair compensation settlement or judgment.
Car and truck drivers don’t always look for motorcyclists when changing lanes or turning at intersections. That negligence can result in catastrophic injuries for unprotected motorcyclists when drivers and riders collide. To pursue damages, it’s not enough for you to say that someone was negligent; you must prove it. Your Fort Myers motorcycle accident attorney must establish the following:
- The driver who caused the accident had a duty to act with reasonable care and not harm others.
- The at-fault driver breached that duty of care by acting negligently or choosing not to act when they should have.
- The breach of duty caused the accident and your injuries.
- You subsequently sustained losses.
Can You Recover Compensation For Damages If You Are Partially To Blame For A Fort Myers Motorcycle Accident?
You and your personal injury attorney can’t file a motorcycle accident lawsuit in Fort Myers until you’ve identified who was responsible for the accident. That individual or entity is the defendant in your case. As the person taking legal action, you are the plaintiff.
The defendant may claim you were partially or completely at fault for the accident. If fault is shared, you may still recover some compensation. However, the amount you recover depends on your percentage of fault.
Per Florida’s comparative negligence law (Florida Statutes § 768.81), anyone who is more than 50% at fault for an accident cannot recover compensation for their losses. If you are 20% at fault for the crash, you may recover no more than 80% of your losses (your percentage of fault is deducted from your total compensation).
Compensable Losses You May Recover After A Motorcycle Wreck
If someone else’s negligence caused your motorcycle accident and injuries, you may be eligible to recover more than your medical bills. Your economic and non-economic damages may include but not be limited to:
- Motorcycle replacement or repair, along with compensation for other property damage, such as clothing or gear you carried on your bike
- Wages lost during your recovery
- The difference between what you earned before your motorcycle accident injuries and what you can earn now (if you experienced reduced earning capability)
- Loss of future earnings and benefits, if you cannot return to work
- Pain and suffering you experience now and in the future due to your injuries
- Mental anguish
- Emotional trauma
- The upheaval to your life if your injuries leave you disabled
- Loss of quality of life
- Loss of enjoyment in life
Keeping Track Of Your Medical Records
Severe injuries may make it difficult for you to get copies of and organize all your medical documentation. A friend or relative may be able to assist you with this, or your Fort Myers legal team can help manage your medical evidence while preparing your motorcycle accident lawsuit.
Ask for copies of everything related to your medical care, beginning with the ambulance ride from the accident scene. When you receive your medical records, ensure they accurately reflect the care you received. Sort them by date and attach personal notes, if you have something to add that may help when pursuing your compensation claim.
Contact Our Fort Myers Motorcycle Crash Attorneys Today
At the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine, we offer free, no-obligation case consultations. This conversation allows us to provide our best legal advice for your case. If you’d like to move forward with our personal injury law firm, we will represent you on a contingency fee basis. This means you won’t pay any fees unless and until we win your case.
Call our legal team today. It’s our job to get you the money you deserve. We’ll do the fighting so you don’t have to.
