Emmetsburg Car Accident Injury Attorneys

Injuries and accidents can suddenly alter lives. During these challenging periods, car accident injury lawyers become essential allies. They advocate for those harmed by others' negligence, ensuring fair compensation. This article emphasizes the critical role these lawyers play in helping people manage their claims and rebuild their lives.

Social Media and Car Accident Claims

For those who are social media savvy, posting funny snaps, sharing an event using Periscope, and tweeting is second nature. While posting to social media is a great way to keep in touch with friends and share information, after a car accident, posting to social media may harm your claim. Here’s what you should know about social media and car accident claims.

Refrain from Talking about Your Accident

After a car accident, you may be tempted to chat with a friend or post a status update about the crash. However, you should never use social media as a forum for talking about your accident. This is especially true if your social media account is public; an insurance adjuster may look at your account at some point.

If you talk about your accident on social media, you may make an admission of fault, discuss a detail of the wreck that’s later used against you, etc. Because car insurance in Iowa is fault-based (i.e., the person, or car insurance of the individual who is at fault, handles paying for damages), admitting fault may severely impair your damages amount.

Avoid Posting Pictures and Videos

If you’re filing an injury claim after a car accident and want to recover damages for harm that you’ve suffered, avoid the urge to post pictures. An Instagram post of you doing a particular activity (walking, playing, traveling, etc.) may discredit your injury claim.

For example, if you’ve claimed a broken leg injury, but there is a YouTube video of you hobbling across your bedroom to grab something without your crutches, the insurance adjuster may question the validity of your injury. Even if you are taking part in something like tbt (throwback Thursday) and the photo is from before the car crash, you may still see it brought up in court because you posted it post-crash.

Don’t Post Location Check-ins & Status Updates

Just as harmful as pictures, location check-ins, and status updates may be detrimental to your claim for the same reason. If you are claiming damages for an injury, but ‘check in’ to a location on Foursquare post a Facebook status update about having fun with friends at their house, an insurance adjuster may question whether or not you are as hurt as you claim.

The Best Social Media Policy

The best policy for social media and car crash claims is to just avoid it. In fact, you should even consider temporarily suspending your accounts. If you can’t resist, set your profile to private at the very least, and don’t ‘add’ any new people that you don’t personally know. Interact with it as a user rather than a producer. 

Trigger Point Injections for Pain Management after an Iowa Car Accident

A car accident can result in injuries which in some cases might be severe enough to cause significant pain, even days, weeks, or months after the accident. Doctors may utilize trigger point injections to treat the pain if other treatments or home care – like rest or physical therapy – are not effective.

What are Trigger Points?

According to an article published in the journal American Academy of Family Physicians in 2002, trigger points are hyperirritable spots of the body that are located within a “taut band of skeletal muscle.” Patients with trigger points may experience muscle spasms, inflammation, and pain in these areas.

Trigger points commonly occur in these areas:
- The back, particularly the upper back
- Upper spine
- Shoulder

While less common, trigger points can develop in other parts of the body as well. Trigger points are usually caused when trauma to the muscle occurs, such as in the event of an injury. One common cause of injury that can cause trauma to the back, as well as other extremities, is a car accident. Following a car accident, a victim may develop trigger points.

Understanding Trigger Point Injections

Trigger points can be painful themselves. During a trigger point injection, a numbing agent like lidocaine (or another similar agent) is injected into the trigger point, causing numbing and pain relief. The treatments are outpatient procedures administered by a medical professional using a very small needle. In some cases, a steroid is used in place of the anesthetic. In the ideal situation, only one trigger point injection is needed to alleviate the pain, but in some cases, the treatment may be needed fairly regularly.

Trigger point injections can be very effective at alleviating pain, but like all medical procedures, there is a risk of certain complications. A minor side effect may include pain at the injection site. Infection may occur in rare cases. Other complications might include the formation of a hematoma or the needle breaking. Patients should review all possible complications with their doctor prior to receiving this or any other treatment for their pain.

How Can I Afford My Trigger Point Injection(s)?

If you have been injured in an accident and have sustained an injury leading to trigger points, a trigger point injection can provide you with the pain relief you need. But medical treatment can get expensive, leaving many wondering if they can afford pain relief.

If another person’s negligence caused your car accident, then you may be able to file a car accident claim to recover damages that you’ve suffered. This allows you to recover compensation related to your injury, including treatment costs. Other damages that may be awarded include damages for lost wages and mental anguish. During the lawsuit, you will have to prove that your injury and trigger points – and any other injuries from the car accident – were the result of the accident, and that the other party caused the accident by acting negligently.

Contact a Personal Injury Attorney Today

A victim of a car accident doesn’t deserve to live in pain. If you have trigger points, trigger point therapy may help alleviate the pain preventing you from living your life. For help recovering compensation to receive this and other treatment, seek the legal help and counsel of a local attorney.

At Walker, Billingsley & Bair, our attorneys understand how essential medical care and pain relief can be following an accident that causes injury. We’ll help you take all of the necessary legal steps to file your lawsuit or claim and recover compensation for your damages.

What to Do if I Have Been Injured in an Iowa Car Accident

Knowing what to do at the scene of an accident is important to preserve evidence when filing a car accident claim. Auto accident scenes can be filled with chaos and confusion. Yet it is important that injured victims do everything he or she can to remain calm and avoid making mistakes that can harm the case.

Things Not to Do at the Scene of the Accident

One of the first mistakes many people make is to refuse medical treatment when it’s necessary. Later on, an injured person might try to submit medical records as evidence, but if there was a delay in receiving treatment, it can make proving the severity of an injury difficult.

A second mistake made by Iowans is that they fail to treat on a regular and consistent basis. If you are still having problems due to an injury caused by a car accident, then you need to go back and see the doctor preferably monthly. If your doctor tells you to call him or her if you are having problems and you do not call to schedule an appointment, then in the mind of the doctor, the insurance company, and eventually the judge or jury, you must have been fine. If later on, you claim that you have continued to have problems and your medical records show no medical treatment for the condition for a period of months, then it will be difficult to prove that your ongoing problems are related to the accident. 

Along the same lines, follow your doctor’s orders. If your doctor tells you to go to physical therapy twice a week and you decide that you are only going to go once per week, then this can damage your case. It is always a good practice to do what your medical providers recommend. This includes exercises, stretching, etc. that your physical therapist may recommend that you do at home.

There are several things that you should do regarding both your medical care and keeping documentation regarding your damages. With regards to your medical care, it is important that you tell your medical providers everything that hurts and all the problems that you are having caused by the accident. If you forget to tell your doctor about all of your problems and it does not make it into your medical records, then chances are that you will receive no compensation for the medical condition. If you have to bring notes with you to your appointments, that is fine. This will help you remember to tell the nurses and your doctors everything that is causing you problems from the accident. 

Another mistake to avoid is taking the blame for the crash, apologizing (even if not responsible), or making other comments that are suggestive of being at fault. The less that is said about what caused the accident, the better it may be for a car accident claim.

Certain details can be sorted out later with help from an Iowa injury lawyer. And when it does come time to talk about the crash, such as to the responding officer, stick to the basic facts. Don’t try to offer an opinion or make assumptions about the accident, which is the third mistake to avoid.

Other mistakes that can be made at the scene of the accident are not taking pictures. Thinking that damage to a vehicle is minor and that the injuries are mild could later put a claim in jeopardy. The damage could be much more significant than originally thought and symptoms from injuries don’t always present themselves immediately.

Lastly, don’t make the mistake of not getting contact information from any witnesses. Relying upon one’s own statement may not be enough. In fact, testimony from others could be what puts the car accident claim in an injured person’s favor.

Seeking Legal Assistance

Seeking legal counsel from experienced Iowa car accident attorneys such as those at Walker, Billingsley & Bair can provide invaluable support in filing insurance claims or pursuing personal injury lawsuits. With a comprehensive understanding of Iowa law, their team can help gather evidence, establish liability, and secure the compensation deserved by accident victims.

Suffering from the aftermath of a car accident shouldn't impede your pursuit of justice and fair compensation. The Iowa injury lawyers at Walker, Billingsley & Bair work hard to level the field between injured Iowans and insurance companies.

That's why we provide this FREE book; The Legal Insider's Guide to Iowa Car Accidents: 7 Secrets to Not Wreck Your Case. To learn more about what our legal team will do to help you protect your Iowa injury claim, contact Walker, Billingsley & Bair to schedule a no-cost consultation. Call 641-792-3595 to order your free accident book today.