After Your Car Accident . . . Keep A Car Accident Diary

One of the most important things you can do after your car accident is keep a car accident diary. Beginning immediately after your accident and continuing until you recover from your injuries and are ready to make a claim -- no matter how long that is -- keep a diary. Here are 2 useful realities to remember about car accident claims . . .

• they are resolved based on facts, evidence and details.
• they can take months, or even longer, to resolve.

Therefore, if you don't keep a diary after your car accident, you may forget important details and weaken your claim.

What should you put in your diary?

Begin the diary with a detailed description of your car accident. Include all of the details that you can think of, whether or not you think they are important. (Sometimes things that initially didn't seem important turn out to be quite important.) Be sure that the narrative tells who was involved, what happened, when and where it happened and why it happened. Include a description of weather conditions, lighting conditions, the names and telephone numbers of witnesses and the most precise times and distances that you can establish. Include a diagram which shows the point of impact and the points where the vehicles came to rest.

An easy way to describe your accident is to complete this accident investigation form.   Then, periodically, add notes about your claim. Basically, you want your entries to answer the question "How has this accident affected my life?" You can keep the diary in any form that you are comfortable using. Write it on a paper tablet, save it in a 3-ring binder or make it a word processing document on your computer. But, one way or another, keep the diary.

I have given this advice to hundreds, if not thousands, of clients over the years. However, for some reason, this advice is rarely followed. I'm not sure why. I guess they thought it was too much effort or not important enough. It does require a little effort, but it is VERY important. So . . .I'll make a deal with you. If you'll keep an accident-related diary, I'll make the job easier. OK?

Click here to see a simple form for adding notes to your accident diary.  You can use this car accident diary form 2 different ways. One is to copy the form into your digital diary or print it and add it to your paper diary and then fill it out when you want to make an entry. Alternatively, use the form as a guide or a checklist of the types of things that you should document, and then make an entry using your own format.

How often should you make an entry?

As often as you have something to report. Initially, you will make more frequent entries, probably daily for awhile. Later, as your recovery progresses and there are fewer consequences of your accident, you will make less frequent entries, perhaps weekly.

After the initial few weeks, I don't think you should make daily entries about your pain. If you sit down every day and say to yourself . . . where do I have pain and how much does it hurt? . . . that focus may become a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you look for pain, you are more likely to find it. Instead, after the initial few weeks, make periodic references (say, once a week or so), not daily references, to the pain that you are experiencing.

Are there any things that you can do to make your diary even more valuable?

In addition to writing your diary, be sure to make pictures of anything that can be captured by a photo. Make photos of such things as visible injuries like cuts and bruises. They will have healed and faded by the time that you make a claim. Preserve evidence of them by making photos. If a laceration leaves a scar, make photos of it at different points in the healing process. Also photograph slings, braces, casts or anything else that will help you show later what you had to go through.

In one case, where my client suffered from chronic pain that required daily use of very strong pain medicines, we piled all of the empty pain bottles in one place and made a very dramatic picture that documented the extent of her pain and suffering.

Mainly, you are keeping your diary to collect and preserve information that you will need when you make your injury claim.

But there is one other important use for your diary. Use it to tell your doctor what you are experiencing. When you see your doctor, use your notes to report your symptoms and limitations. You can even give your doctor (or physical therapist, or any other health care provider) a copy of your diary (hopefully a concise version) to be included in your medical records.

This is important because of another car accident claim reality . . .

Insurance companies give very little weight to what you tell them, but they give much more weight to information contained in your medical records. Therefore, give your doctor the information that is needed to fully document what you are going through.

Is your diary private?

Here's an important caution about keeping a diary! If you end up in court, a diary that you made on your own is "discoverable." That means that the Bad Guys can make you give them a copy of your diary and can use it against you. Don't worry about this if all your diary has in it is an accurate report of your experiences. However, remember when you are deciding how to express your thoughts and experiences that your entries may be read someday by an adversary or even by a jury. Make your entries accurate and business-like. Try to avoid references to your desire to see the person who caused your accident die a slow and painful death. You think I?m kidding? I've seen just such entries in diaries made by clients of mine.

Note that I said that a diary "that you made on your own" must be disclosed to your adversaries if your case goes to court. However, if you make the diary at the request of your lawyer, it will probably be protected by the "attorney-client privilege," which means that you will not be required to share it with the Bad Guys if you go to court (unless you and your lawyer decide to use it as evidence). This is one more reason why you should hire a lawyer -- sooner instead of later -- if you have a significant case that has a good chance of ending up in court.

How do you use your diary to make a claim?

You use your diary to remind yourself of all that you have experienced and you use its detailed information to convey a thorough explanation of your experiences to the insurance company when you make your claim. With your diary to help, you don't have to state generalities such as that you saw your doctor "quite a few times over several months" to be treated for your injuries. Instead, you can state, for example, that you "had 8 office visits with my doctor, received 18 physical therapy treatments and had the following diagnostic tests . . . (giving the dates, if you wish).?

With this type of information, your "demand letter" will be specific . . . precise . . . powerful. And it will convey to the insurance company that you know what you're doing, increasing the chances that they will want to settle your claim for a fair amount.  Of course, if you hire a lawyer, you turn your diary over to your lawyer for her use. She's a professional advocate, and very skilled in car accident cases (or you wouldn't have hired her), so she'll know what to do with it.