Woodland Hills Accident Attorney, Barry P. Goldberg, has long been a proponent of persuasive visuals even at the earliest stages of a claim. Not only do insurers react to what they can actually see, visuals create a more memorable presentation than argumentative words from an attorney or dry descriptions from a doctor. Without visuals, it is simply case 1,000,001 and is not individual or memorable. Our law firm looks for persuasive visuals in every case.
Sometimes ordinary photographs provide enough of a visual impact to compel a favorable recovery. One of the first things that is acquired in almost any accident case is photographs from all sources. Cell phone photographs now provide easy access to injury photos, property damage photos and scene photos. Our Woodland Hills law office has obtained amazing photos from police photographers that are often overlooked by experience counsel and insurers. Normally, photos are not provided from a simple request for the police report. However, in an obscure corner of the report there is an indication by a check mark whether photos were taken. If so, we recommend ordering those photos immediately. The photos are usually of a very high quality and show intense circumstances and very relevant physical evidence.
In addition to easily obtained photographs, both photographs and radiographs should be searched for from all medical records. Even when you obtain medical records and have requested photos, they are not always included. Often, the records themselves will reference that photos of an injury were taken. We see these moving visuals often in plastic surgery records and more and more often in orthopedic records. Again, the quality of the photos are usually very high and are in the records to “prove a point.” A separate request may be needed to obtain these doctor photos.
Since more and more radiographs are provided digitally, we recommend actually looking at the images. Sometimes the only thing needed to resolve a case is a clear rendering of a broken bone or the placement of internal hardware. It is the practice of our office to print out a “positive” of the image or images to be physically provided to the insurer.
Unfortunately, not all radiographs clearly demonstrate to severity of the injury sufficient to convey the seriousness of the claim. In these situations, our office looks for opportunities to obtain medical illustrations which accurately convey the seriousness of an injury. We do this even early in the case at the claim stage. If the matter is not resolved, the illustrations below provide an excellent starting off point.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact attorney Barry P. Goldberg.
