Bad luck leads to two accidents.
In the course of each year, we see several cases where clients are injured in an accident, and before they are discharged from their medical care, they have the misfortune of being involved in a second accident. Many times, their injuries are similar and pursing both cases is filled with complex and overlapping medical and legal issues. If the accidents are similar and the injuries are similar, one has to weigh carefully whether it makes to pursue the second case.
The insurance company on the first case is going to argue that their responsibility to compensate you ends when the second accident occurs. They will essentially “cut you off, ” and not pay any of your medical bills after the second accident nor pay for any pain and suffering typically, following the second accident.
The insurance company on the second accident is going to argue that all of your medical problems relate to the first accident and refuse to pay anything other than some limited compensation for what they are going to call an aggravation of your prior medical injuries. Unless your injuries are completely distinguishable between the two collisions, by having the misfortune of having two back to back accidents, instead of having one good case, you will now basically have two bad cases, with each insurance company pointing the finger at the other saying we are not responsible, the other guy (or company) is!
If you are in the process of pursuing making a claim for personal injury from a car crash and have a personal injury lawyer representing you, you need to talk to your injury lawyer about the wisdom of pursing a second accident case, particularly where you are not done treating from the first accident case. Further, your treating doctors will be equally confused and not be able to separate the injuries between the two accidents. The medical records will overlap, the treatment will over lap and the doctors will not be able to state to a reasonable degree of medical certainty which accident caused you to have the problems you have now. Presumably, the first accident is the major culprit with the second accident being an aggravation of your underlying injuries.
Unless the accidents are sufficiently separated by time, and providing further, that your injuries are distinguishable between the two cases (such as in accident one maybe you fractured your arm, but in accident two, you injured your back), you need to carefully weigh whether making a second accident claim makes sense. If the accidents are similar, such as both are rear end collisions, and you have neck and back pain from both, instead of having one good case, you now will have two bad cases.
