The process of being injured and filing a personal injury claim can be very stressful. The litigation process can mean a lengthy timeline and your ongoing commitment. Are you dealing with stress relating to the litigation process, timeline, costs, and access to treatment?

Here are some helpful tips that can assist you in managing your symptoms stress during your personal injury claim.  

1. Talk to your Family Physician

When injured in any kind of accident, first take care of yourself. Seek immediate medical attention. Besides reporting the incident, follow up with your family physician regarding your diagnosis. Your family doctor will continue to support you through this process by making recommendations and referring you to specialists if required.

These recommendations can assist you in accessing appropriate treatment to help you manage not just the injuries but dealing with stress.

2. Seek Treatment

Your healthcare practitioners will recommend treatment to help you with your recovery. Be sure to follow up with their recommendations. Many injured people stop treatment either because of lack of resources or lack of motivation. Therefore, addressing your injuries by way of treatment will reduce the amount of stress you may have with respect to your recovery.  

3. Hire Competent Legal Representation

After seeing a physician, the next important step is to seek legal advice as soon as practical. Once you have retained a competent lawyer, they will assist you in starting your claim. Your lawyer and their team will ease many of your worries that may come up during the civil litigation process. We will also manage the day-to-day tasks involved in the litigation process so that you can focus on recovering.

4. Understand the Litigation Process

As you begin the claim process, write down any questions you may have about the litigation process and raise them with your lawyer. Often people don’t know about the process. Learning more about the steps involved could help manage your stress.

It is also vital to discuss with your lawyer any other potential claims that may stem out of your original claim (e.g. such as short-term or long-term disability, CPPD, ODSP or an Accident Benefits claim).

5. Don’t Make Uninformed Decisions

As the process moves forward, many people make impulsive decisions; that may affect the progress and the outcome of their personal injury claim. Heightened stress affects everyone’s ability to make informed choices. So, before making any major decisions, it is important to discuss these with your family physicians, lawyer, and family.

6. Seek Additional Services

You may not be aware but there are many resources and programs available to you through your employer, community services, hospital, clinics, and OHIP to help you cope with stress because of the accident. For example, you may want to discuss with your family doctor or employer for any accommodation you may need to deal with your stress.  

7. Seek Support from Family and Friends

The support from loved ones, your family and friends can help you in getting through this process. Being alone not only will increase your stress but affect the people around you. Talking about your stress and any medical symptoms with them and working towards a collaborative plan to recovery is key in reducing your stress.   

8. Keep Organized

During your personal injury claim, you may be overwhelmed with documents, prescriptions, paystubs, out-of-pocket expenses, income tax returns, witness statements, and so on. As your lawyer, we will need these documents at some point during your claim. If they are readily available it will reduce the time, cost, and stress associated with your claim.  

9. Keep a Diary

Keep a diary that logs details of the accident in order to accurately remember them later. A few things should be documented immediately following the incident, such as what happened, where it occurred, the time and date, the weather conditions if the accident happened outside, the names of witnesses, any complaints you brought to a doctor’s attention, and the names of physicians and other medical practitioners you saw.

In addition, as your claim proceeds, you may have numerous medical appointments. Later, it may be difficult to recall their dates, the diagnosis, and recommendations made by the professionals treating you.  

Keeping a diary will alleviate a significant amount of stress and help you stay in touch with your doctors on a regular basis as well as remember details later on.  

10. Keep Calm

Your focus should remain on recovering from your injuries. It’s our job, to focus on assisting you in accessing treatment and working towards a resolution of your claim. Talk to the treating practitioners, loved ones, family members and friends because they can help keep you stay calm throughout this process – a key to dealing successfully with the lawsuit.

Gosai Law Understands

At Gosai Law, our team of professionals understands that you are going through a difficult process. We will work collaboratively with you and your treating practitioners to get you the help you require throughout your personal injury claim. Contact our office for a no-obligation consultation today.