The Law Offices of James M. Freeman, P.C.

There are certain injuries I see over and over in my bicycle cases. Injuries to joints are common. Typical injuries to joints might involve shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and knees. These are the areas of the body onto which we usually fall when we crash. When someone complains of pain in a joint after an accident I am typically very concerned.

My experience representing cyclists is that we are typically very lucky when we cars hit us. Once in a while there are tremendous injuries resulting from a crash, but most of the time we end up more or less OK. If someone comes to me immediately after an accident and they have complaints of pain in a joint I am typically very concerned. In such an instance a person should keep a close eye on the joint in question and be vigilant with respect to their medical treatment. In about 30% of such cases the client ends up with an injury that requires surgery or other invasive treatments when they initially thought they were just sore and expected the injury to heal. After weeks or months they are in progressively worsening pain, until they find themselves back at the doctor's office.

The primary concern after an accident should always be to get better. Some injuries have a window of opportunity in which good results from treatment can be achieved. Outside of that window your chances of a full recovery may be substantially reduced. My experience with my clients is that the importance of making a full physical recovery is always more important than any financial recovery. Never wait to get medical treatment. Be diligent with respect to your treatment from the start, and be consistent. Do whatever it takes to get better as quickly as possible, or you may lose the window of opportunity to make a full physical recovery.

Often one is unable to tell the full extent of an injury until days or weeks after an accident. The key is to be vigilant with respect to your medical treatment after an accident. If you go for a period of weeks or months after an accident the defense will use that "lapse in treatment" against you. They may point out that you went for a period of weeks or months with no treatment and suggest that you may have had some other accident in that period of time that actually caused the injury. The argument usually goes something like this:

Mrs. Smith went two months without any treatment. Two months! What was going on during that time? She says she was in pain, but all we really know about that two months is that she never made so much as a single complaint of pain to any medical provider during that entire time. She went eight weeks without so much as one visit to the doctor.

What was going on during those eight weeks? Maybe she was hit by another car. Maybe she fell down the stairs...

Be honest with yourself. People have a tendency to want to think they are OK after an accident. Injuries never happen at convenient times, and it may be hard to face the reality that you are injured. Don't fool yourself and think you are getting better if you are not. Go to your doctor. Have your injury examined. Get necessary treatment, and follow up regularly until you get better.