Practice Areas

• Car Accidents
• Distracted Driving
• Uninsured Motorist Claims (UM/UIM)
• Truck and Bus Accidents
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Drunk Driving Accidents
• Bicycle & Pedestrian Accidents
• Injuries to Children
• Dog Attacks
• Wrongful Death
• Dangerous Drugs & Devices
• Other Injury Claims

Key Topics

How to be a Good Claimant

• What You Shouldn’t Say At The Crash Scene
• A Step-By-Step Guide: What You Should Do After a Car Crash
• Why Accident Victims Must Be Good Patients
• Accident Victims NEVER Should Exaggerate Their Injuries or Inability to Work

View All

Why Accident Victims Must Be Good Patients

All accident victims who decide to pursue a claim are held to the standard of being a "good patient." This is not a true legal requirement by the State of Texas, but it is certainly a practical requirement placed on the injured party by juries. By being a "good patient," you are expected to do everything that the doctor asks you to do. You must attend all doctors' appointments. If you're unable to make a scheduled appointment for some reason, then you need to call ahead, report the reason for canceling and then promptly reschedule. When a medical provider writes down a "no show" in the record, it looks very bad later on when the records are being reviewed by someone else (namely the insurance adjuster or the jury). During trials, I have suffered through having to listen to insurance company attorneys talk about my clients as being "no shows" to some of their appointments. The distinct implication is that my clients were not as hurt as they were claiming to be, otherwise, they would have bothered to show up for the scheduled doctors' appointments. Those situations put me on the defensive, when instead I would have rather kept the focus on my clients' injuries and the effects that such injuries had on their lives.

Another part of being a good patient is making sure you follow all of your doctor's advice. For example, it's common for surgeons to tell surgery patients to stop smoking. It's well-documented in medical literature that smoking delays the recovery process after a surgery, therefore it's almost always noted in medical records that the patient was instructed to stop smoking after a surgery. What happens if you ignore your doctor's advice and continue to smoke? That fact is usually noted by the doctor or his or her staff in the medical records. You can take it to the bank that an insurance adjuster or insurance lawyer will bring up the fact that you failed to follow your doctor's advice and if you would have, then your recovery process would have gone better (and maybe quicker). In Texas, you have a duty to mitigate (or lessen) your damages. By failing to follow your doctor's advice, it means you are not lessening your damages. Simply stated, you are expected to do all that you can to make things better.

Being a "good patient" also means that you don't do anything to delay your treatment, as timely treatment will help you heal and recover faster. Doctors often leave it up to you to schedule certain appointments. You must not delay scheduling any diagnostic tests (such as MRIs) or physical therapy appointments. Large gaps in treatment give insurance companies one more thing to hold against you during the claims and litigation process. Once again, the system operates under an assumption that if you are hurt, you go to the doctor. You can "wreck" your case by not being what juries and insurance companies consider "a good patient."

Free Consultation
Contact the Anderson Law Firm online, or by calling 817-294-1900 for a free consultation on your rights.

Contact Mark Privately

Receive Our
Free Newsletter

ALF Giving Back:
Keeping Our Roads Safe

Firm Sponsors Teens Against Distracted Driving Project

Connect With Us