If you end up in the unfortunate circumstance of sustaining a serious personal injury, your first thoughts should always be focused on getting yourself medical attention. Your health is far and away the most important thing. But, quickly, you will need to think about recovering fair compensation for your damages. The best thing you can do is to get an experienced personal injury attorney on the case as soon as possible. That way you can put the focus of your mind on your recovery, and your attorney can be the one with the focus on gathering and assembling the evidence to make your case. Evidence is the key to any successful personal injury claim, and there is a big advantage to those who act to gather evidence quickly.
Take as many Photographs as Possible
Humans, by nature, tend to find photographic evidence particularly convincing and powerful. You should always take as many photographs as possible, as soon as possible, after your injury. Take photographs of everything that you think could even be remotely relevant to your personal injury claim. This means photographs of injuries, the accident scene or of anything else plausibly relevant. Smart phones are widely available and allow people to take and store many different photographs and virtually no cost. It does not matter if you take a ton of completely irrelevant pictures. You will not be able to tell which picture will be the one that will be the key to your claim in the future. You can delete the unnecessary pictures later. If you do not have a smart phone, see if a friend or relative will loan you one, or tell your personal injury attorney about your lack of access to a camera and have your personal injury attorney figure something out.
Locate any Witnesses Immediately
Much like photographic evidence, witness evidence is also compelling and valuable. Also similar to photographs, if you wait too long, the evidence might disappear. Witnesses often grow harder to track down by the day, especially if you have no relation to the witness. A neutral witness can be extremely valuable, but they are always at risk of disappearing. Let your attorney get to work right away to track the witnesses down and get supporting statements.
Acquire Medical all of the Relevant Medical and Financial Documents
A medical professional should examine you immediately after your accident. Most of all, this is important for your health. Some injuries, like back injuries for example, can take while to appear. You may not initially realize the full extent of the damage without a comprehensive medical examination. Beyond that, the early medical documentation will be key evidence in pursuing fair compensation. You should get extensive medical reports from your doctor and give them to your attorney. This is also true of relevant financial documents. For example, if you are missing time at work due to your injury you could be entitled to compensation for lost wages. You will want to have documentation from your employer stating the exact extent of the work time you have missed. Do not lose your claim because you lost the evidence.
Contact An Experienced Personal Injury Attorney
Every injured victim deserves full and fair compensation. But, it should be recognized that recovery of compensation can always be a challenge. Insurance companies, and other opposing parties, do not simply hand over money. You will need to gather and assemble the evidence that proves your case. An experienced personal injury attorney in Chicago can do that for you, and you should get one on your claim as soon as possible.