What Is a Personal Injury Journal?
If you have sustained injuries in a motor vehicle accident, you will require strong and substantial evidence to establish your case and the extent of damages suffered by you. You may be legally entitled to economic as well as non-economic damages, including medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Proving anything related to a motor vehicle accident can be contentious without solid evidence, and you are also likely to find the defendant’s insurance company resisting you at every turn. Consult an experienced Mississippi personal injury attorney who can help and guide you through the complex and challenging personal injury claims process.
Apart from hiring a competent personal injury lawyer, a tool that you can use to strengthen your case is a personal injury journal. Read on to find out all about personal injury journals and how keeping one can help your case.
What is a Personal Injury Journal?
A personal injury journal is similar to a diary where you can keep your firsthand account of the challenges and pain you have gone through after suffering injuries in a motor vehicle accident.
Try to be as accurate as possible to note the difficulties you have encountered following your accident, and also the pain and trauma you continue to suffer. You may type or keep a handwritten injury journal.
You must ensure that the content you write in your journal remains private and confidential, not to be shared with anyone except your personal injury attorney.
How Will Your Personal Injury Journal Help in Your Vehicle Accident Case?
Memories tend to fade with time, and even though your recent accident is still fresh in your mind, a personal injury journal will help you preserve the details which will come in very handy during the long and arduous personal injury lawsuit.
A personal injury journal is a record, in your own words, of what occurred at the time of the accident and throughout your recovery process. It is also a very important way of conveying your non-economic damages like emotional trauma and mental anguish which are otherwise difficult to contextualize.
What Should You Include in Your Personal Injury Journal?
You can cover several areas in your personal injury journal that will help in your vehicle accident case. Here are a few relevant points your journal should include:
Detailed Account of Your Accident
Try to put down as much as you can to recollect the accident. The details of the accident scene you should mention include:
- The time of day of the accident
- The location of the accident
- Road and weather condition at the time of the accident
- Any hazards near the accident scene that you can recall
- Names and contact details of any eyewitnesses that were present at the scene
- The negligent party’s actions during the accident
- The names and agency of responding officers
Pain and Discomfort You Endure
Following your injuries, you must document in detail the pain and discomfort you suffer every day. Try to describe the intensity (rate it from 1 to 10), the frequency, and the location of your pain. Be very objective about the whole exercise of writing down all the details, avoiding the temptation to exaggerate or hide your pain levels.
Impact on Your Daily Life
It’s critical to regularly document how your life has been adversely impacted by the accident and your subsequent injuries. This can later help you prove the non-economic damages. The details you should mention are how your injuries have:
- Limited your mobility
- Made simple everyday tasks much more difficult or even impossible
- Prevented you from caring for loved ones
- Prevented you from enjoying hobbies and pastimes
- Prevented you from attending events
- Put an additional burden on your loved ones
Issues You Face at Work
If your injuries and consequent treatment have resulted in you missing time from work, you should write this in your injury journal, along with the amount of wages you have lost due to your injuries.
Travel Related to Your Injury
Treatment and therapies for serious injuries entail medical appointments almost every day. Make sure that you note all the appointments you attend, along with the distance you needed to travel to attend it. You will need these records to claim compensation for your travel expenses.
Injured in a Motor Vehicle Accident? Speak with a Qualified Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney
If you sustained injuries in an accident caused by the negligence of someone else, keeping a personal injury journal is one of the things that will help you greatly in your personal injury claim. Other important things you need to do are to get proper medical care and speak with an experienced personal injury attorney.
At Gardner Law Firm, our skilled legal team will evaluate your situation and advise you of the legal options available to recover maximum compensation for your injuries and other damages. Contact us online, or call us at 228-900-9618 to schedule a free consultation regarding your case.
