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Posted on: 6 February 2020

You should keep a post-accident journal if you are pursuing a personal injury claim. Below is a brief overview of such a journal.

Why a Journal Could Help

A post-accident journal can help you in various ways, but the following are some of the common reasons you need such a journal.

1. Recording Facts: Personal injury claims or lawsuits take time. Your memory will fade with time. Use your journal to record facts about the accident for ease of recollection or reference later.

2. Treatment Evaluation: Both you and your doctors can use your journal to track and evaluate your treatment. For example, you can use the journal entries to assess whether your pain has been increasing with time or it has stagnated. That can help your doctor to determine whether you need a change in medication or treatment.

3. Tracking Losses and Limitations: Medical treatment is just one part of personal injury damages; other losses include pain and suffering and lost wages, among others. You can use your pain journal to track these losses. Say you were unable to drive your kids to school for two months and you can't play basketball with them as you used to do before the accident; your injury journal can help you track such limitations.

Entries to Include in Your Journal

The more detailed your journal is, the more it will help you to accomplish the above goals. With that in mind, here are some of the entries to include in the journal.

1. Accident Details: Record the details of the accident as soon as you can do so. Include things like the location, date, and time of the accident. Include the victims of the accident and witnesses' details too.

2. Conversations: You will have lots of conversations about your accident with different parties. You may talk with the police, other victims, witnesses, your doctor, and the insurance adjuster; include these conversations in your journal.

3. Medical Treatments: Your medical treatment should not miss in your journal. The treatments you receive, medications, and tests should all be included.

4. Pain: Pain is one of the indicators of injury and recovery progress. Thus, you should include details of your pain in the journal. Specify where you feel pain, when you feel pain, and whether the pain is subsiding or intensifying with time.

5. Losses and Limitations: As previously mentioned, the losses related to an injury go beyond medical issues. For example, your injury may interfere with your sexual life, prevent you from enjoying your hobbies or even affect your mood and social interactions. These details should not miss in your journal too.

For more information about handling your case, contact personal injury attorney services.