WILL COVID-19 IMPACT MY PERSONAL INJURY CASE?

Posted on April 30, 2020 in Interesting Articles

Life already feels upended after an accident. It can sometimes seem impossible to imagine eventually getting back to work, family and your social life as you recover from injuries. Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic and our stay at home order, a return to normal may seem even more distant. In our home, it’s been quite a struggle as my wife coordinates our girls’ virtual schooling, and dealing with the kiddos all day long (one day she even counted that they said “Mom” over 300 times).

Fortunately, there’s a lot we can do to help support your injury case – even during this pandemic.

We’re Still Here For You

Our top priority in every case is the health of our clients and making sure they get the treatment they need to get back to normal.  That priority has not changed and is even more important now. We prefer meeting clients in person when their case starts, and when the case settles, we love having them come to the office to pick up their settlement check. Obviously, we’ve reduced that practice during the stay at home orders. Thanks to technology, we are able to meet with clients on Zoom or FaceTime to stay in contact with clients. As always we’re available by phone and e-mail for communications as well. Some of our staff is working remotely during this time as well, and we are all still very connected, so we don’t miss a beat.

Don’t Neglect Your Medical Treatment

If you were recently injured, don’t wait this one out. It’s understandable with the pandemic that you may prefer to avoid exposing yourself to COVID-19. But leaving accident-related injuries untreated creates multiple issues:

• Injuries can lead to critical health problems and long-term health issues such as arthritis, chronic pain, and your body will be in worse shape than if you get proper treatment.
• The insurance company will say “You weren’t that hurt, you didn’t get any treatment.” One might like to believe that insurance companies would understand that you didn’t get treatment during COVID-19. But believe me, six months to a year from now, they won’t acknowledge COVID-19. In my career, I have had multiple cases where insurance companies made low offers stating that our clients didn’t get treatment until one week after a wreck, even though the explanation was reasonable.  Remember the ice storm a couple years ago where everything was shut down for a week because the roads were frozen? I do. My client does.

While this pandemic has caused a lot of problems, many healthcare providers have adapted. Even for clients who don’t want to come into the office, many of the providers that our clients see are treating patients with telehealth appointments and video appointments. This helps get our clients they treatment they need in the meantime, and the healthcare providers are able to measure the progress of improvement for the clients and make other recommendations for their treatment.

SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY

If you or someone you know is involved in one of these wrecks please do not hesitate to call or e-mail us or contact us by clicking here so that we can help you.  Even if you do not want to work with The Melonakos Law Firm for your personal injury claim, you should have legal counsel fighting for you in these situations.

Michael Melonakos

Michael, a lawyer who honed his skills at premier Atlanta insurance defense firms, specializes in cases involving trucking, auto, and premises liability, adeptly representing both local and national clients.