Serious accidents can have life-altering repercussions.
If you have been injured in an accident that was not your fault, filing an insurance claim and talking to a personal injury lawyer is often just the beginning of a long, drawn-out process.
Even if you are confident that someday you will be fit enough and ready enough to resume your ordinary routine, traumatic injuries have a bad habit of hounding survivors for much longer than most anyone would anticipate. Physical pain can be both debilitating and disabling. In some cases, it could persist for years after an accident, serving as an ever-present reminder of a time you would rather move past than be reminded of every day.
Some doctors specialize in treating pain.
Finding a good, experienced pain management doctor who is in your network or is willing to work on a long-term payment plan is not easy, but working with a professional could offer profound benefits when it comes to managing your symptoms and building the basis of a strong legal claim.
The Role of Pain Management Doctors in The Healing Process
Most doctors can help manage, treat, and even beat various diseases and discomforts. Still, pain management is a distinct professional subspecialty that often requires additional training beyond medical school and residency.
Pain management doctors typically employ multiple methods to control pain. These could include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Prescription medication;
- Physical therapy and physical rehabilitation; and
- The targeted application of nerve blocks and steroids.
Some non-physician providers also offer pain-management services.
The science is still out on chiropractic medicine and more alternative forms of treatment, like acupuncture, but the legal system can be surprisingly accommodating of practices that are not always proven to work but still provide accident victims with peace of mind and a baseline of support.
Pain Management Could Help You Reduce Your Symptoms And Build a Better, Stronger Personal Injury Case
You cannot always win a personal injury lawsuit on the sole basis of evidence.
Let us say you do not have any unresolved questions about your accident: you know who caused it, and you have overwhelming proof to support your claim. Maybe the insurance company has already given you an offer, or they have at least signaled that they are ready and willing to negotiate.
However, proving causation is a small, if critical, element of a standard personal injury claim.
As a general rule, to win a personal injury lawsuit, you will need to establish all of the following:
- You were injured in an accident caused, in whole or in part, by somebody else;
- The person who caused your accident, the defendant, owed you a duty of care;
- The defendant violated their duty of care by acting negligently;
- The defendant’s negligence was the direct or actual cause of your injuries; and
- You sustained legal damages as a result of the accident.
These fundamental elements can vary significantly depending on who caused your injury, how the accident occurred, and the circumstances under which it happened. Nevertheless, whether you are filing a boilerplate personal injury claim, a premises liability suit, or a product liability-related case, proving the extent of your damages could prove very, very challenging. After all, insurance companies and defense lawyers only stay in business by staying profitable and keeping their clients and shareholders happy. And this often means finding every possible way to keep your settlement check as small as possible.
Seeing a pain management doctor means that you have a record, created by a medical professional with years of training, to underscore your claim and prove that your symptoms, no matter their severity, are not made-up or exaggerated.