How Keeping an Injury Journal Can Help Your Auto Accident Claim

Whether or not you believe that journaling has mental health and self-care benefits, it’s impossible to ignore the ways that an injury journal can support your personal injury claim. After a car accident, you’ll be shocked by how much you have to do. You may have numerous appointments with doctors, lawyers, and insurance companies.

You might have to connect with caregivers and service providers to make sure your kids and home are cared for. On top of that, you have to prioritize your healing while juggling everything else. Of course, some things will slip through the cracks. An injury journal makes it easier to track important information and send it to the right parties.

Not sure what comes next after a car accident? We’re here to help. Call Turner, Onderdonk, Kimbrough & Howell now to learn more about your legal options. You can reach our Chatom office at 251-336-3411 or our Bay Minette office at 251-336-3697.

Benefits of an Injury Journal

There are several reasons you should set aside some time to write in an injury journal each night. They include:

• Clear documentation of accident-related expenses: The goal of a personal injury claim is to get full and fair compensation for everything you lost in an accident. It’s hard to know if your settlement is fair if you don’t even know how much your accident has cost you. Information on copays, parking fees, tolls, over-the-counter medications, and other expenses make it simple to track your financial losses.
• Proof of your post-accident limitations: Over time, you’ll forget how much the accident has changed your day-to-day life. If you can’t pick up your kids from school and you have to rely on the help of neighbors, note that. If you are unable to do your own laundry and you have to spend money on a pick-up and drop-off service, definitely document that. If you have to skip outings with your family because of your pain level, record that. It is all relevant to your personal injury claim.
• Information on your treatments and progress: Tracking your medical appointments, treatment recommendations, and progress can be useful evidence in a personal injury claim.

What to Include in Your Journal

A useful personal injury journal will contain a wide range of information. We recommend including:

• Specific details of the accident, preferably written as soon as possible after the accident
• The treatments you try and how you progress throughout the healing process
• Notes from each doctor’s appointment
• Symptoms and pain levels each day
• How your injury is negatively impacting your quality of life
• An expense log that tracks accident-related spending

It’s important to talk to your Chatom, AL car accident attorney about your injury journal and what you include in it. Your attorney can give specific advice on what you should or should not include.

When to Start

Ideally, you’ll start your personal injury journal right after the accident. While it may seem like the accident will live forever in your mind, important details start to fade fairly quickly. These details are an essential part of your claim and knowing exactly how the accident happened could help you get fair compensation. However, even if you wait to start your journal, it can still be a very helpful piece of evidence.

Keeping a personal injury journal doesn’t have to be a major time-consuming task. Just spend a few minutes at the end of each day adding any new relevant information. There are some things you can track every day to see the progress (or lack of progress) in your healing.

Rate your pain each day and note which symptoms you’re experiencing. This can be helpful if the other side claims that you’re close to a full recovery since you can show them what your actual healing trajectory looks like.

Start Your Claim Now with the Team at Turner, Onderdonk, Kimbrough & Howell

Having the right legal team on your side can make it much easier to fight for the compensation you deserve. We’re here to help you through your claim. Set up a consultation now—just contact us online, call our Bay Minette office at 251-336-3697, or call our Chatom office at 251-336-3411.