What Are Minor Injuries in Car Accidents?

of these may be severe enough to warrant hiring an experienced and knowledgeable personal injury attorney. This is because car accident injuries caused by the negligence of someone else could entitle victims to compensation. The lawyers at Morgan & Morgan have extensive and broad experience in working with victims of vehicle accidents to better understand their potential damages.

Minor injuries in car accidents should not be overlooked as the combination of multiple minor injuries could collectively have major impacts. Many people who are hurt in an accident have been injured because of someone else's careless or reckless behavior.

These situations must be taken seriously and should always be handled by a personal injury lawyer. You may assume that you may not be entitled to recover compensation for a minor injury, but this is not always the case.

Instead, you need to work directly with a qualified attorney to help support you through this process and clarify your responsibilities. It can be overwhelming to think about moving forward with the future if you've already begun to receive medical bills or are dealing with the serious impacts of a major accident. It is hard to work through this process on your own and the good news is that you do not have to do so.

If you’ve experienced injuries in a car accident that wasn’t your fault, even if those injuries were minor, contact Morgan & Morgan for a free, no-obligation case evaluation to learn more about your options.

What Are Minor Car Accidents?

Many minor injuries associated with car accidents have to do with accidents that could have been much worse but thankfully only left relatively minor damage to the vehicle or minor injuries to the people involved. Minor auto accidents typically involve very slight damage to the vehicle, and the vehicles can often continue to operate.

Examples of minor vehicle accidents include busted tires, cracked windshields, broken headlights or taillights, small fender benders, and small dents in the side of a vehicle. A rear-end accident from someone going at a slow speed, for example, might only lead to minor damages and minor injuries. An accident in a parking lot would similarly leave limited damage to your vehicle. However, even in these small accidents you may suffer some form of injuries.

Even a minor car accident could cause serious injuries, so you should always be screened by a doctor about your injuries and to discuss your next steps.

What Are Major Injuries?

Major injuries or catastrophic injuries are those that threaten your life or make you disabled. Common examples of major injuries in vehicle accidents include traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. Minor injuries on the other hand, do not leave you with life-threatening conditions. For example, soft tissue injuries like whiplash or bruises are not likely to kill you, however, you should always take these conditions seriously because these can turn into major medical problems after the fact.

They can also cause chronic pain and lead to problems living your everyday life or being able to go back to work. With so many different things to think about, you deserve to have a dedicated personal injury lawyer guide you through the legal process.

The support of an attorney is instrumental in helping you get all of your questions answered quickly and determining whether or not your injuries are severe enough that you should consider filing a lawsuit. It is important to get evaluated by a medical professional as soon as possible after your accident. A doctor can identify progressive injuries and treat them before they have a serious impact on your health.

The sooner you work with a medical professional to get a diagnosis and a treatment plan, the easier it will be to follow this treatment plan and limit the possibility of severe injuries. This is also another reason why you shouldn't take an early offer from an insurance company even if you feel fine. In the wake of a minor injury, you may be tempted to move on from this unfortunate situation without getting the help of an experienced and qualified lawyer. However, you should always make sure that your doctor has given you information about your prognosis.

What Are Some of the Most Common Minor Car Accident Injuries?

Car accidents can cause a huge variety of injuries. Almost all people will walk away from a vehicle accident with minor injuries, but there are plenty of experiences where someone suffers major injuries as well.

Some of the most common injuries reported from vehicle accidents include soft tissue injuries, migraines, lacerations, bruised ribs, and broken bones. People in a vehicle accident are most likely to be hurt in the following areas of their body in a car accident: head, neck, spine, back, hand and wrist, ankle, foot, and knee.

Watching for appropriate symptoms of major and minor cracks and injuries is very important. Tingling, pain, numbness, swelling, weakness, prickling, and limited range of motion are all indications that you are suffering some form of injury.

What Are the Most Frequent Minor Car Accident Injuries?

Soft tissue damage is one of the most common types of injuries from a car accident. This is damage like swelling of the tendons and muscles or bruising of those muscles and tendons because of the impact of the car accident.

For example, back pain and whiplash are commonly reported because being struck in a vehicle causes a sudden moment of force. Even though these are classified as minor injuries, don't allow an insurance company to convince you that you don't need any medical treatment. It is common for people who have soft tissue damage to need chiropractic care or ongoing physical therapy to speed up recovery or reverse this pain.

Other common examples of minor injuries from car accidents include cuts and sprained ankles. Even if you believe these injuries are minor, it's still important to include this as part of your medical record. Many of these minor injuries could impact you for the remainder of your life, which is why taking any and all medical care seriously is extremely important.

How Long Does It Take for Injuries to Appear?

Some injuries may be obvious at the scene of the accident, such as lacerations and cuts. However, many soft tissue injuries do not present until hours or even days after the accident. Adrenaline is coursing through your body after the accident occurs and you might also be experiencing shock. Similarly, although your body has absorbed the impact of the accident and has not yet responded with pain, this means you might walk away from the scene of the accident with limited pain, but in the hours and days that follow begin to experience things like headaches, shoulder pain, or problems with vision.

You should always be seen by a medical professional immediately after the accident just in case you have been seriously injured, and so that you can continue to follow up with your physician if any of your symptoms change. This also helps to create a firm line of treatment that you can point back to. It is common for insurance companies to minimize the potential impact of your accident by saying that your injuries were not severe enough to warrant damage payments. By showing that you continue to go back to your doctor and reporting ongoing chronic pain or more severe symptoms, it is easier for you to fight for the compensation you deserve. If you are curious about what are minor injuries in car accidents, an experienced personal injury lawyer can tell you more about how your life may be impacted by even these minor injuries.

Getting a treatment plan and collecting other evidence associated with the accident is very important for taking your medical care seriously and putting you in the best possible position to recover compensation. Knowledgeable lawyers like those working at Morgan & Morgan will help you figure out what are minor injuries in car accidents that are worth pursuing comprehensive treatments for. You may be eligible to recover compensation but only when you take action within your state's statute of limitations. This means the sooner you speak to a personal injury lawyer the better.

Do I Really Need a Lawyer?

For very minor injuries, you and the insurance company might be able to agree about the extent of your damages. This means you might not need a lawyer to help you get compensation for your accident.

However, it's always a good idea to speak with a lawyer to determine the true extent of your injuries and to get the right help onboard for recovery. At Morgan and Morgan, we make it our mission to help you understand the full scope of your accident and injuries so that there are never any questions about what's coming next or possible damages in your case. We believe you deserve an individualized approach towards your treatment in your legal case and we will work hard from beginning to end to help you.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation case evaluation to learn more.