What To Document In Your Personal Injury Journal
Have you recently suffered an injury and are going to have to take the responsible party to court? If so, it is important that you keep track of how your injury is progressing from the very beginning. You'll need to prove how serious your injury was in order to receive compensation, so you should not rely on your own memory to do it. That is why you need to keep a journal to document everything, so you can easily recall your condition on any given day. Here are some things to document in a personal injury journal.
When You Noticed the Symptom
Not all symptoms related to an injury will show up immediately. Some can take quite a time to become apparent. Things such as reduced mobility, stiffness, or anxiety can all occur later in time. That's why you want to document when these symptoms began.
Go into detail about what the symptom is. Do not just write that you are experiencing numbness, but maybe that your right hand is going numb after prolonged work at your job on a computer.
The Current Pain Level
Saying that you are experiencing pain is not enough. You should try to rate the pain on a scale of 1 to 10 so that you have something to compare each journal entry to. You can easily tell if pain is getting better or worse over time when you need to recall what it was like several months later.
Your Activities That Are Affected
Is your injury causing you to be unable to do something that you once did? For example, a neck injury may cause you to be unable to exercise, drive your car, or perform a normal task that involves turning your neck. If your injury made you unable to perform a certain activity that day, document what activity it was. This can help demonstrate how your quality of life has changed because of the injury.
The Frequency of the Symptom
Symptoms may not be persistent all the time, and which is why you need to document how frequently they occur. If it is a headache, say the duration of the headache when it happens. If you are experiencing numbness, document how many times during the day it happens and for how long.
By keeping track of your injury in such a detailed manner, you will have plenty of evidence to prove its severity when settling your personal injury claim. Contact a personal injury attorney for more help.