How Treatment Refusal Affects Your Claim

Some auto accident victims refuse medical care after an accident because they feel they do not need medical attention. Unfortunately, refusal of treatment after an auto accident can complicate your auto accident claim in multiple ways. Below are some of the potential complications.

Hidden Injury Risks

Refusing medical care can lead to some of your injuries not being recognized and diagnosed. Failure to diagnose your injuries in time can result in delayed or no treatment. For example, if you are suffering from a concussion, but believe you only have a headache and discomfort from the accident, you won't get the relevant treatment in time.

Lengthy Recovery

Proper medical care can speed up recovery. In contrast, the absence of medical care means your recovery might take longer than it should. This can also mean that you will take a longer time to reach your maximum medical improvement (MMI). Injury lawyers advise injury victims to wait until their MMI before filing auto accident cases.

Refusing medical care also means you have to wait to file your claim, which also means you might not receive your compensation check as soon as you may like.

High Damages and Related Complications

Diagnostic complications and lengthy recovery times are likely to increase your damages. For example, you might:

• Incur huge medical bills if your injury worsens, and you need specialized treatment
• Have to miss work for a longer time than you would with medical care
• Have to pay others to help you with house chores that you can't perform due to your injury

Unfortunately, high-value injury cases tend to be more complicated than other cases. You can expect the defendant to put up a spirited defense, including the use of expert testimony, to lower your compensation. You might end up spending more money on the case (in terms of legal fees and case costs) than you would have otherwise spent.

Comparative Negligence Claims

The law expects injury victims to take measures to mitigate their damages. For example, you must take measures to:

• Prevent further property damages, for example, by towing your car to a safe location
• Get medical care and follow your doctor's orders
• Return to work as soon as possible

Refusing medical care means you have failed to mitigate your damages. As such, the defendant can ask the court to apply modified comparative negligence law. This law can reduce your damages in proportion to your percentage contribution to your damages. It also means you won't recover any damages if the court deems your contribution to the crash to be at least 51 percent.

Difficult Valuing and Proving Damages

Medical care can help you know how much your case is worth. Accepting medical care allows you to know how much you have spent or will spend on recovery. For example, medical treatment can help you track the cost of:

• Ambulatory expenses
• Diagnostic expenses
• Medication
• Physiotherapy
• Counseling
• Future medical costs

Apart from damage calculations, medical care also helps you to prove your damages. You can use the following things to prove your damages.

• Medical bills
• Drug prescriptions
• Receipts for out-of-pocket expenses

The defendant can argue for reduced compensation if you don't have proof of your medical expenses. The defendant can even argue pre-existing injuries if you can't prove that your doctor has been treating you for current injuries.



Hopefully, you won't refuse medical care if you are ever an auto accident victim. However, you don't lose your right to pursue compensation because of your medical treatment complications. Contact Walsh & Associates, PC to evaluate your case and advise you on the next steps you should take. You can rely on our skills and experience to help you achieve the best outcome for your case.