Back Pain After a Car Accident: What Should I Do? – Morgan & Morgan

If you developed back pain after being rear-ended or in another type of vehicle collision, act quickly to protect your legal rights. You could recover damages such as medical bills, lost wages, and others if someone else is responsible for causing your accident and back injury.

Our experienced car accident attorneys can help you put your life back together after suffering a debilitating back injury. Find out if you have a case today by contacting us for a free consultation.

Seek Medical Attention After a Car Accident

Our bodies can suppress pain during stressful and chaotic situations such as a car accident. The result can be that accident victims do not realize how seriously they are injured until their back hurts a few days after the car accident. Just because you feel fine immediately after a collision does not mean that you have no injury. 

Delayed onset back pain after an accident is widespread. Therefore, seeking medical help promptly after an accident can be essential for your health. While milder back pain could heal on its own with rest and time, chest and upper back pain after a car accident could point to serious conditions and should be investigated by a medical professional. 

Moreover, if you wait for weeks before going to the doctor, you may have trouble recovering compensation for your injuries and medical expenses. The liable party’s insurance company could argue that your symptoms and injuries are caused by something other than the accident.

Common Causes of Back Pain After a Car Accident

Back pain after an auto accident can point to a variety of injuries of the neck and back area, some more serious than others. Common injuries can include but are not limited to:

Whiplash

Whiplash is a common neck injury after car accidents. A whiplash injury results from the rapid back-and-forth motion of the head during impact and is often responsible for neck and back pain after getting rear-ended. Mild whiplash, although uncomfortable, is a relatively harmless injury that typically goes away with time, rest, and over-the-counter pain medication. 

However, according to the Mayo Clinic, moderate or severe whiplash can cause long-lasting complications for accident victims, including chronic pain and loss of motion range. Treatments for severe cases of whiplash can be extensive and costly, potentially involving chiropractic treatments, physical therapy, prescription pain medication, and neck injections.

Strains and Sprains

Soft-tissue injuries of the back and neck area can be common in all types of car accidents. The human body tends to absorb a great deal of stress during a collision, particularly during high-speed or rear-end collisions. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments can get torn, stretched, and pulled in an accident, resulting in back pain, stiffness, and painful muscle spasms. Back pain from soft tissue injuries can be excruciating and interfere with a victim’s ability to maintain their regular work or home life routine for several weeks or months. 

While strains and sprains are not life-threatening, a pulled ligament or muscle can take months to heal fully and could result in high medical costs and income loss for an accident victim. 

Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries can be life-threatening, disabling, and emotionally distressing for a car accident victim. Spinal cord damage and severance are some of the most serious injuries a victim could suffer in an accident, potentially leading to permanent paralysis. An individual with extensive spinal cord damage may never work again or live independently without daily assistance.

Degenerative Disc Disease

Degenerative disc disease occurs mainly due to the natural aging process. However, being involved in a car accident can exacerbate disc disease considerably. The term degenerative disc disease can refer to a variety of conditions where one or several discs between the vertebrae are damaged or deteriorated, such as:  

• Herniated discs
• Spinal stenosis
• Pinched nerves
• Sciatica
• Osteoarthritis

Herniated discs, in particular, are common car crash injuries resulting in backache after a car accident. Treatment for herniated discs and other degenerative disc diseases can include pain management, physical therapy, and surgical treatments.  

You Could Have Legal Recourse

Back pain after a crash, if connected to a serious injury, can result in astronomical medical treatment costs. A significant back injury can also cause emotional distress and have devastating effects on an accident victim’s career and home life. Moreover, overall life enjoyment may be greatly reduced as victims may not be able to partake in hobbies and activities that they used to enjoy before the injury. 

However, a personal injury lawsuit could compensate you not only for your medical costs but also for the emotional effects, physical suffering, and other consequences of an injury on your life. Contact Morgan & Morgan today to find out how you could get justice.

Signs and Symptoms of Back Injuries After Car Crashes

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), lower back pain is the second most common cause of disability in the U.S. If you were recently involved in a car collision, you should take back discomfort or pain seriously, no matter how minor it may seem. Symptoms that could point to a back or neck injury can include:  

• Pain and discomfort in the back and neck area
• Muscle spasms
• Pain radiating down the buttocks and legs
• Stiffness and loss of range of motion
• Numbness or tingling in extremities
• Difficulty walking or standing

If you notice any of these symptoms or others after a motor vehicle accident, make sure to consult your doctor for advice as soon as possible.

Compensation for Back Injuries

Neck and back injuries from car accidents can vary greatly from one person to another. Therefore, compensation will also differ from one case to the next. Generally, a catastrophic or permanently disabling injury could result in a considerable settlement. Current and estimated future costs of medical treatments will also play a role in what you could recover. Types of damages victims could seek include:

• Costs of all medical bills and out-of-pocket expenses 
• Lost income and future lost income
• Compensation for physical and emotional suffering
• Payment for permanent disability

You could also receive other types of damages, depending on your specific injuries and accident circumstances.

Can I Get Compensation with a Pre-Existing Injury? 

Having a pre-existing condition or injury generally does not bar accident victims from recovering compensation, including aggravation of a pre-existing condition. However, victims cannot pursue compensation for their original pre-existing condition.

Most state laws operate according to the “eggshell skull” principle, which provides that the defendant has to take the accident victim as they are. This holds even if the injuries suffered are more serious than would be expected. For example, if you had an old back injury that was fully healed but reappeared due to an auto accident, you could seek damages for any medical bills and other losses arising from the reappearance of your pre-existing injury.

What if I Have Delayed Back Pain After an Accident?

It is not unusual to walk away from an accident feeling fine. However, what if you suddenly develop symptoms days or even weeks after the accident, such as back pain, numbness, or persistent headaches?

If you have not settled your claim yet and signed a release of liability form, you could still receive compensation for your delayed injuries. However, you will need a comprehensive medical workup and evidence of your injuries, as well as an estimate of your future expected healthcare expenses. Knowing your potential future medical costs may only be possible once you have reached full recovery or maximum medical improvement.  

In complicated cases such as those involving delayed injuries, working with an injury lawyer can put someone in your corner who knows how to fight for what you deserve. Your attorney can also help gather the essential evidence linking your delayed injuries to a car accident.

Wait with Signing a Release of Liability

After a settlement amount has been agreed on, the injured party in a car accident typically signs a “release of liability” form. Once the form is signed, victims usually have no legal recourse for recovering further damages, even if their back pain and injuries worsen drastically after a car accident. 

Signing the form too soon can be disadvantageous for victims who may end up with the burden of sky-high further medical costs. Getting a full medical evaluation after a car accident and speaking to an experienced car accident attorney can help prevent victims from making mistakes and losing out on compensation.

What Should I Do After an Accident?

Seeking medical advice and contacting an experienced car accident attorney, in that order, are generally your best first steps after suffering a back injury in a car accident. However, you should also begin gathering evidence that can help build a good case against the at-fault party. 

Generally, victims have to prove fault of the other party and provide clear evidence of their damages. Collecting the following types of evidence can help with your case:

• Contact details and insurance information from other drivers
• Contact details of eyewitnesses
• Photographs of the accident scene and damaged vehicles
• Proof of your damages such as pay stubs and medical bills
• Police accident report

Should I Negotiate with an Insurance Company?

It can be high time to seek the help of a seasoned car accident attorney when you get a call from the at-fault party’s insurance adjuster. Negotiating with an insurance company can be full of pitfalls, especially if you have suffered serious injuries and considerable damages in an accident. Insurers are typically seeking ways of reducing payouts and minimizing your settlement. 

Anything you say while communicating with an adjuster could be used against you, even something as innocent as answering “fine” to the question “how are you?”.  Providing the insurance company with a recorded statement or signing any documents before speaking to an attorney can result in leaving money on the table. Once victims sign a settlement agreement, they generally lose the right to sue.

Your best course of action if the insurance adjuster calls can be to tell them that your attorney will be in touch. A personal injury lawyer from Morgan & Morgan can protect your legal rights and communicate with the at-fault party’s insurance company directly.

Can I Afford a Car Accident Attorney?

We believe everyone should be able to work with a great accident lawyer if they got hurt due to no fault of their own. A victim’s financial situation should not determine whether they can get quality legal representation. When Morgan & Morgan takes on your case, you do not pay a dime upfront. 

We get paid when we win and you recover a settlement. If you lose the case, you pay no attorney’s fees. We have the resources to fight for your rights when you hire one of our experienced and tenacious personal injury attorneys.

We Are Ready to Fight for What You Deserve

If you are not sure what to do when experiencing back pain after a car accident, Morgan & Morgan can be here for you. Our seasoned attorneys and legal teams can:

• Help you get adequate medical treatment
• Determine whether you have a case
• Offer legal advice and guidance
• Identify the at-fault parties in your accident
• Gather and organize evidence to prove negligence
• Determine the scope of your present and future damages
• Negotiate aggressively with insurance companies
• Fight for the best possible outcome of your case

Our car accident attorneys are committed to fighting for the payout that accident victims deserve. Over the last 35 years, we have recovered over $20 billion and helped countless accident victims rebuild their lives after suffering serious and debilitating injuries. Morgan & Morgan’s tenacious personal injury attorneys can handle your case from beginning to end, leaving you free to heal and recover. 

Act now as the time for filing personal injury lawsuits is generally limited. Contact us today for a free and confidential case review.