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Straight
Track #60
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A Paper Trail Is
Everything
Gary F. Babiarz
Hoey & Farina Chief Investigator
1-888-425-1212
You’ve been injured on the railroad.
From our previous editions of Straight
Track, you knew to do the following:
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You covered all the basics, but is there anything else
you should be doing?
Yes, keep a diary!
I’m not talking about writing a literary masterpiece.
Just a couple of sentences written down each day on say a spiral
notebook that keeps track of your day to day life from the time you are
injured to the time you reach maximum medical recovery.
Keeping a diary is often one of the most helpful things you can do
for yourself, your doctor and your attorney, yet is often the most over
looked.
When keeping a diary, it is important to include any
pain and physical limitations you experience that were caused by your
injuries. This will not only
aid your doctor in your treatment, but will also document your pain and
suffering (that is recoverable in the form of monetary compensation under
the law). Time often clouds memories, making people's recollections of
events and conversations sometimes different.
Be sure also to include notes of any conversations you have with
your doctors, nurses, and even your supervisors.
Another thing to keep track of is any expenses you incur
as a result of your injury, such as if you had to hire someone to help cut
your grass and do your household chores.
These types of expenses may be recoverable.
You should also document your disability by listing
activities that you can no longer do, such as hobbies, sports, housework
or perhaps playing with your children. Your pain and suffering also are an
important part of your damages.
As you're reading this newsletter, take a few minutes
right now to think back to exactly what you did and the conversations you
had with anyone a month ago. It's no fooling matter.
You probably can't remember, and a month is not a very long time.
Now consider this, months, even years could go by before you'd have to
give a deposition or testimony describing all of events and conversations
surrounding your injury and medical treatment.
When you keep a diary, you have an accurate written recollection of
the events and conversations as they happened.
It only takes a few minutes of your time each day to jot
down a few lines in a diary. It's
time worth investing in your future.
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