With insurance fraud on the rise, personal injury victims are often confronted with the accusation that the incident that they are seeking to recover for (slip and fall, car accident or work related injury) did not ever happen in the first place.
Without objective evidence of the occurrence, through incident reports or medical records, the victim is left with nothing more to point to than their own account of the event.
Often, people are reluctant to report incidents because they are embarrassed, and/or they appear to not be injured at first glance. With injuries that can take weeks or months to present themselves, this often places the victim at a disadvantage when dealing with insurance companies, and their lawyers.
Additionally, information that is recorded as soon as possible after the incident tends to have the best indicia of reliability, as the incident is still “fresh” in the minds of the victim and any witnesses. After all, most of us cannot remember what we ate for breakfast yesterday, not to mention a car accident from 2 years ago.
If you ever find yourself in a slip and fall or motor vehicle accident situation, even if you do not feel injured at the time, and you are embarrassed … tell someone. This will improve your credibility and chances for success later on.