Many residents of California sustain injuries after being involved in car accidents. Soft tissue injuries might be challenging compared to other, more obvious ones.
What is a soft tissue injury?
Soft tissue injuries are those affecting the muscles, tendons and ligaments. They are often sustained from trauma in a car accident. Whiplash is one of the most common examples of a soft tissue injury.
Why is it challenging to prove a soft tissue injury?
When a person files a personal injury claim against a driver for soft tissue injuries stemming from a car accident, it might be challenging to prove those injuries. It could take several days for the symptoms to begin to show.
Soft tissue injuries are often difficult to diagnose through medical testing involving X-rays or MRIs. If there is damage to soft tissue, it won’t show up in X-rays or MRI scans, which means that the doctor would have to make a diagnosis based on questioning the victim and giving them a physical exam.
Treatment for soft tissue injuries can also make it difficult to prove the injury in a legal claim. This is because treatment for such injuries often varies depending on the patient and the nature of their injuries. Unfortunately, this also means that what might work for one patient might not work for the next. The individual could be left seeking the right treatment plan so they can heal, which could be costly.
While a diagnosis of soft tissue injuries is often difficult, a person can still file a personal injury claim based on negligence. Proving that the other driver was negligent in causing the car crash is key. It might also be possible for a medical expert to be called in to help strengthen the case to prove that the victim suffered a soft tissue injury.
One of the easiest ways to prove these claims is if the accident was a rear-end collision. Whiplash is a common soft tissue injury suffered from that type of car accident, which is almost always the fault of the driver in the rear vehicle.