What can a Physical Therapist do for your personal injury?

You cannot always pick yourself up after an accident, dust off your clothes, and go back home to an ordinary life. If you have been seriously injured, recovery may not be a guarantee. Going back to your old self is a process that could take weeks, months, or even years of hard work and sacrifice.

Everybody’s roadmap to recovery is different, but most people who have been hurt in a traumatic accident will eventually be steered toward physical therapy. Falling under the broader, more general category of “physical rehabilitation,” physical therapy is a hands-on approach to managing injuries, reinvigorating damaged muscle, and regaining your pre-accident range of motion.

Physical therapy is often an integral component of recovery but it is also expensive.

However, depending on the circumstances of your accident, you may not have to pay out-of-pocket for physical therapy.

How Physical Therapy Plays into The Calculus of Personal Injury Claims

In New York, accident victims who were injured through no fault of their own are typically entitled to file a personal injury lawsuit against the person, or party, who caused their accident.

Of course, filing, fighting, and winning a lawsuit is often anything but a straightforward process.

Every case is different, but if you take action, you will likely be expected to prove the following:

1. The person who caused your accident, the defendant, owed you a duty of care;
2. The defendant breached their duty of care by acting in a negligent manner;
3. The defendant’s negligence was the direct cause of your accident; and
4. You have sustained damages as a result of the accident.

These requirements are not set in stone. If the defendant is a landlord or a government agency, for instance, you will probably have to prove a different set of elements. In either case, though, your damages are integral to your claim.

In the legal field, the term “damages” describes the different kinds of physical, financial, and emotional hardship you’ve sustained as the direct result of an accident.

Physical therapy is one of the most-frequently-claimed types of damages in personal injury cases. Aside from being a necessary component of your physical recovery, going to physical therapy provides concrete evidence of your injury and its severity, potentially preempting an insurance company or defense attorney’s concerns that you’re being honest about your symptoms.

Furthermore, physical therapy is an obvious expenditure that falls squarely under the category of economic damages. Not only could you be reimbursed for its cost, but attending PT is integral to overcoming allegations that you didn’t work hard enough to mitigate your damages.

3 Ways PT Could Help You Build a Stronger Personal Injury Case

Physical therapy plays a much greater role in your recovery than merely being a recoverable expense. If anything, going to physical therapy and following all of your doctor’s other recommendations could help you build a better, stronger case. Here is how:

1. Your Physical Therapist Is an Expert

If the defense thinks your injuries are not as serious as you are letting on, your physical therapist could offer testimony in support of your case. Often, they know your struggles and what you need better than almost anyone; maybe better than your doctor, maybe even better than yourself.

2. Going To PT Shows You Take Your Recovery Seriously

You can only hold a defendant liable for unavoidable accident-related expenses. If your injuries get worse because you did not go to PT, they may not be liable for the difference.

3. Your Progress Can Help Answer Other Questions

Insurance companies hate claims that require a long-term financial obligation, but accident victims rarely get to pick and choose how and when they will get better. The progress you make in PT could underscore the type of support that you will need going forward.