What Not to Do: Top 9 Mistakes that Hurt Your Injury Claim & What to do Instead!

You're t-boned two blocks from home ! You lost a finger to the bandsaw at work ! You get hit in a crosswalk by delivery truck !

Here's a list of 9 common mistakes and what you should do instead:

1. Leaving the Scene Too Early. If your injuries do not require that you leave the scene of the incident right away, here are things to get done before you go. If you can't do them yourself, have someone do them for you.

2. Not Reporting the Incident. Call the police if it's a traffic accident. Talk to management or the homeowner if you've fallen. Make the appropriate report if you got injured at work.

3. Not Taking Pictures. Take pictures. Lots of pictures. General tips: make sure your phone or camera will apply a time stamp to the pictures & take pictures from multiple angles. What to photograph? For Vehicle Collisions ... The vehicles involved. The position of the vehicles relative to each other. Get up close pictures of damage. Get pictures of any traffic control devices like stop signs and traffic lights, again showing the relationship of the vehicles to those signs. Take a picture of the driver of the other car to avoid disputes later on. If a commercial truck is involved, take a picture of any official seeming number affixed to it together with the license plate. For slip/fall situations, take close-up and wide-angle pictures of anything (a "hazard") that you think may have contributed to your fall like grease or liquid, displaced sidewalk slabs or broken steps. Also document the area surrounding the hazards to provide context and understanding of the hazards. Determine if there are any warning signs in the area and document their absence if there are not so they can't be substituted later. Similarly, for injuries at work, take photos of the area where you were injured, any equipment that was involved and any signage or safety devices, taking particular care to photograph, in detail, the presence of any safety equipment or features or alterations to the way the manufacturer originally designed the equipment.

4. Admitting Fault. Fault may seem obvious. Even when it is not ! Zip it. You don't know. You think you know. The moments, minutes, days and weeks after you suffer trauma is NOT the time to offer your opinion on fault ! Determining which party is at fault, what other parties may share in the blame and the extent of any party's responsibility is a factual determination that you should leave for others and best left for much later in the process.

5. Apologizing. Any apology you offer will almost certainly come up later. Like in a deposition where the other party's attorney is asking you pointed questions like, "You apologized to my client right after the crash, din't 'cha?" And then, "And the reason you apologized to my client after the collision is because you caused the collision, isn't that also true?" Just. Don't. Do. It. At the scene it is best to exchange necessary information, stick to very basic facts and avoid any discussion about the circumstances of the accident itself.

6. Delaying Medical Evaluation. This is one of the most damaging mistakes. Some injuries, especially whiplash, concussions, internal injuries and soft tissue damage are not obvious at the time of the injury. You might have NO symptoms of these injuries right after the incident. Insurance companies will seize on that to suggest the injury was not serious. So you want to get a comprehensive medical evaluation as soon after the incident as you are able. If an Emergency Medical Technician or other provider suggests you go take an ambulance to a hospital immediately - DO IT !!! If you don't go for immediate treatment at an Emergency Department or Urgent Care take the earliest appointment with your primary care physician that you can get.

7. Ignoring Medical Advice: This is also a huge case value killer. Insurance companies WILL demand and review your medical records thoroughly. They will look for discrepancies between what you were told to do and what you did. Missed appointment, re-scheduled appointments, stopping physical therapy after fewer than the recommended number of sessions or otherwise ignoring the recommendations your medical providers made allow insurers to argue that the injury was not serious or healed more quickly than it did.

8. Giving a Recorded Statement to the Other Driver's Insurance Company. This one drives attorneys crazy. Insurance companies know the drill. They want to get to you before you get to a lawyer. Insurance company representatives are professional interviewers trained to ask you questions designed to minimize injuries, create inconsistencies, identify how you may be fully or partially at fault for your injuries and shift blame. You are not required to give a recorded statement to the opposing insurer. Instead, respond by saying something like, "I'm not prepared to give a recorded statement now. Please direct your inquiry to my attorney" or, in the likely event that the insurance company person is calling before you've finalized your attorney choice "I'm not prepared to give a recorded statement now. I will have my attorney's office reach out to you shortly."

9. Accepting a Quick Settlement. In simple terms ... if you are being offered money very quickly after an accident it is almost certainly because the insurance company believes that that offer is less than they'll have to pay later. More importantly, a quick settlement may mean your case is significantly undervalued because that settlement offer doesn't appropriately consider ongoing medical treatment, future complications and long term pain, disability or loss. Once a release is signed the case is almost always done - permanently.

10. Posting on Social Media. Social media posts can crush case value. Insurance company representative routinely look at social media accounts for inconsistencies between the injuries claimed and what the person who claims the injuries is doing. Even harmless seeming posts can be taken out of context. A good "rule of thumb" is think, "Could the insurance company's lawyer use this at trial to make me look bad" before posting on social media.

11. Failing to Document Damages. Successful injury claims depend on documentation. Important records include medical records, prescription costs, travel expenses relating to treatment, lost wages, repair bills, and photographs on injuries both shortly after they occur and throughout the recovery progress. A very important means of documenting injuries and the impact they have on you is to keep a journal in which you document your level of pain, the things you miss out on, and the things you either temporarily or permanently can no longer do. Keeping the journal in real time will preserve those impressions so that you don't have to try to reconstruct them months or years later. In keeping a journal, be aware that in almost all cases the insurance company can demand a copy as part of it's preparation. Accordingly, you should be very careful that your journal does not include information that could hurt your claim.