Remember that a quick process does not always guarantee attainment of a fair settlement. Some of the actions that can work to lengthen the process also help to open up the path to success.
What sorts of actions might increase the amount of time required for achievement of a settlement, or announcement of a court-ordered judgment?
Taking the time to consult with several personal injury lawyers in Richmond Hill, before hiring one attorney. Have a doctor give you an examination, even though you feel fine. Taking the time to revisit the accident site and setting aside a time for seeking out any videotaping equipment that might be directed at the location where the collision took place.
Threatening to file a lawsuit. Actually, filing a complaint, the first step in the initiation of a lawsuit. Working to keep negotiations going, instead of agreeing to the first offer from the insurance adjuster.
Ignoring a doctor’s warning that you had failed to arrive at the point of maximum medical improvement. Using a rejection of that warning as an excuse for agreeing to sign the insurance company’s release form.
Possible consequences for a premature (before MMI) signing of the release form
A new symptom might develop, one that would indicate the failure of the completed treatment to correct the injury to the full extent necessary. The treatment used might trigger the emergence of a complication. The insurance company would not cover the costs associated with efforts at dealing with that complication.
Your medical record would show that you had discontinued the prescribed treatment before you had reached the point of MMI. That fact could become significant, if you were to get injured in a future accident. Your hasty departure from the personal injury process would provide the insurance company with grounds for claiming that the allegedly new injury is really the aggravation of an old one.
A parent might sign such a form, under the assumption that no occupant of the impacted vehicle had been injured. Yet that might be an incorrect assumption. In other words, some occupant, perhaps a child might develop more distinctive and more alarming symptoms.
Those symptoms might cause the doctor to recommend a special treatment, perhaps a surgical procedure or an experimental procedure. In either case, the parent could not look to the insurance to cover the medical expenses.
Moreover, the parent would have to arrange for the child’s care, until the treatment had managed to deal with the emerging problem. Any time that had been gained by a shortening of what seemed like a long personal injury process would get offset by the parent’s obligations. They would have to spend time with the still ailing son or daughter.