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Why Victims With Personal Injury Claim Frequently Deal With Chronic Pain October 24, 2019

Personal injury lawyers know that a long-term disorder can trigger the development of unrelenting pain. That pain comes and goes, independent of the presence or absence of an obvious injury or illness. Unfortunately, science has not discovered a means for locating the source of a patient’s painful sensations.

What scientists do know about chronic pain?

Its appearance seems to reflect the existence of changes in the victim’s entire nervous system. The creation of such changes causes an array of different symptoms.

Symptoms associated with chronic pain

Tense muscles Depression
Limited mobility Anxiety
Lack of energy Anger
Changes in appetite Frustration

There is no way to test for the existence of pain.

Hospitals accept the fact that some of the patients might experience a painful sensation. Consequently, hospitals have a means of learning about patients’ pains. The patient gets shown pictures of different faces; some are smiling; others have a grim expression. The patient is asked to point to the one that suggests the nature and severity of the patient’s pain.

An insurance company does not want to deal with faces like that. It wants to believe that a condition that cannot be diagnosed must be faked by the claimant. If the insurance company might accept the existence of some pain, it tends to view complaints about unrelenting pains as an exaggeration.

Those facts highlight the challenges facing the personal injury lawyer in Red Deer that has a client that must deal with chronic pain. Moreover, the victim’s challenges can trigger an emotional response. Some victims have become so depressed that they have entertained thoughts of suicide.

One way to deal with the ambiguities that are linked to the pained victim’s complaint

Victims can be encouraged to keep a journal or a diary. Each time that a painful sensation interrupts some activity, that fact should be noted in the journal/diary. The recorded information should make clear the time of the sensation and the length of its persistence.

It would really make the lawyer’s case stronger, if the journal writer remarked about his or her interest in the activity being pursued at the time of the pain’s appearance. The insurance company should see that the unwanted pains can disrupt an activity that the victim has enjoyed in the past. Why would someone pretend to suffer a painful sensation, while doing something that he or she loved to do?

Such an approach saves the client/victim from the need to confront yet another challenge. At the same time, it provides the insurance company with some evidence that backs-up the client’s complaint. A smart attorney avoids using any technique or strategy that might frustrate the challenged client, since that could trigger the development of a deeper depression.