Finding The Right Diagnosis

Every case is going to be different when it comes from a diagnostic standpoint.

That’s why it’s always important to get the right diagnosis in the beginning, and not wait or find the wrong source for your problems.

We don’t want to be going back and having to change something at a later date because you didn’t heal properly — when that happens, everything’s just muddled and screwed up, and it adds unnecessary complexity to what should be a fairly straightforward healing process.

Finding The Right Treatment

Diagnosis is important, but when it comes to treatment, everyone’s gonna respond a little bit differently.

Everyone lives a different life. They work different jobs. They have different amounts of kids or no kids. Different things can irritate or aggravate injuries.

So sometimes it’s also finding out that, hey, you know what? We’re still in pain, but we reached permanency at this point, and that’s important, too.

We have to make sure we defined what is permanent about it, and make sure we rate all of those things, because then it gives you, the attorney, the leverage to know that we’re not talking about getting better. We’re talking about maintaining at this point. That’s a totally different situation.

There’s a medical side, because you really should never be settling while you’re treating. That doesn’t make any sense. I will never settle a case until a client is either at maximum medical improvement or they’re done treating.

I’m not going to do it, no matter how much they want me to settle it.

Why Not Settle?

Not settling at this point is in client’s best interest, because you don’t really know what the overall injuries are going to be.

Let’s say you have a partial tear of a labrum. You’re progressing well, and then all of a sudden, you just hit a wall or it’s re aggravated through something you’re doing in your every day life. Now you need to end up needing surgery.

If you were to settle before, none of that matters anymore.

I just handled this exact case where the client had a torn labrum, but she didn’t want to go through surgery, and the insurance company offered $38,000 to settle it before we filed a lawsuit. We filed a lawsuit because she was continuing to go through the treatment. She got the surgery, and we ended up settling it for over $300,000.

The value of the case changed dramatically based on where you are in the timeline. If you really try to rush it, that’s what the insurance company wants. They want to rush it, so they pay $38,000 instead of $300,000.