The Ohio Personal Injury Guide: Where to Start After a Serious Injury

Published January 7, 2020 · Injury Law Basics

Picture a Tuesday evening in January on Wilmington Pike. The light turns green, you start through the intersection, and a pickup that never slowed for the red hits your driver's door. By the time you get home from the emergency room with a cracked rib and a sore neck, there is already a voicemail from an insurance adjuster, and you have no idea what you are supposed to do next.

That is the moment our new Ohio Personal Injury Guide was written for. This first post of 2020 explains what is in it, how to use it, and how it fits with the case-law and legislation updates you will keep finding here on the blog.

Why a guide, and why now

For more than 30 years I have answered the same questions across my desk: Should I talk to the other driver's insurance company? Who pays the hospital? How long do I have? What is my case worth? Before law school I spent 19 years as a Dayton police officer and sergeant, and I watched people make decisions at crash scenes that followed them for years. Most of those mistakes were not foolish. They happened because nobody had told the person what mattered.

The blog has always covered changes in Ohio law as they happen. The guide does something different. It is the map: twelve short chapters, organized in roughly the order you will face each problem, written in plain English for injured people and their families rather than for lawyers. When a blog post discusses a new court decision about medical bills or insurance coverage, it will point you to the guide chapter that explains the basics behind it.

A chapter-by-chapter tour

Take the crash on Wilmington Pike and follow it forward.

The first 72 hours. The first chapter walks through the opening three days step by step: getting safe and calling 911, getting the crash report number, exchanging information and nothing more, photographing the vehicles and the scene, finding witnesses, getting medical care the same day, and what (and what not) to say to insurers. Most of the evidence in a case is created or lost in this window.

Focus on treatment first. Your health comes first, and consistent treatment is also the strongest proof of what the crash did to you. This chapter covers telling your doctors about every symptom, following through with physical therapy and specialists, mental-health symptoms after a traumatic event, and how adjusters use gaps in care and "pre-existing conditions" against injured people.

Gathering evidence while it still exists. Store and doorbell cameras record over themselves. Damaged vehicles are sold for salvage. Witnesses move. This chapter explains which evidence disappears fastest and how a preservation letter puts the other side on notice not to destroy it.

Preserving documents and records. Itemized bills, explanations of benefits, pay stubs, mileage, pharmacy receipts, repair estimates, and your own recovery journal are how losses get counted and paid. The chapter includes a simple folder system that anyone can keep at the kitchen table.

Why you should talk to a lawyer early. The chapter on calling early explains what a free consultation actually looks like, what to bring, how contingency fees work, and why hiring a lawyer does not "make things adversarial." It also explains why "early" usually means the first days or weeks, not the last months before a deadline.

Dealing with insurance adjusters. The other driver's adjuster is polite and professional, and works for someone else. This chapter covers recorded statements, blanket medical authorizations, quick low offers, releases that end your claim forever, and settling the car damage separately from the injury claim.

Using your own insurance. Many people do not realize what they already paid for. The chapter explains MedPay, uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, and how using your health insurance protects you rather than hurting your claim.

Medical bills, health insurance, and liens. A lien is a right to be repaid out of your recovery. This chapter explains who pays while the case is pending, when your health plan, Medicare, or Medicaid may claim part of a settlement, and how those claims are negotiated down.

What your case is worth. Damages, Ohio's limits on non-economic damages and the exceptions for permanent injuries, and how being partly at fault affects what you can recover. It also explains why online "settlement calculators" are worthless.

Deadlines and the timeline. In Ohio, most bodily-injury lawsuits must be filed within two years under R.C. 2305.10(A), and some claims, including medical claims and claims against your own insurer, have different or shorter deadlines. The deadlines chapter lays them out and then describes what a serious case realistically looks like from the first call to settlement or trial.

Mistakes that hurt your case. Social media posts, missed appointments, exaggerating, minimizing, cashing a check marked "full and final," and waiting too long. Every one of these is avoidable.

Glossary. Plain-English definitions of the words you will hear from doctors, adjusters, and lawyers, from "comparative negligence" to "subrogation."

How to use it

You do not need to read the guide front to back. If you were hurt yesterday, start with the first chapter and the treatment chapter. If an adjuster is pressing you for a statement, read the adjuster chapter today. If your injury happened a year and a half ago, go straight to the deadlines chapter and then pick up the phone.

Bookmark the guide's main page. It has a short "if you only read one thing" checklist near the top for the days when you are too tired or too hurt to read more.

What the guide is not

The guide is general information about Ohio law. It cannot tell you whether the driver who hit you had enough insurance, whether a store knew about the spill you slipped on, or how a disputed issue is likely to play out in your case in Montgomery or Greene County. Every case turns on its own facts, and the most valuable facts in a serious case are often the ones only an early investigation will find.

That is why every chapter ends with the same invitation. The guide is the map. The phone call is the first step.

What this means for you

If you or someone in your family has been seriously hurt in a crash, a fall, a dog attack, or through someone else's carelessness:

• Read the first-72-hours and treatment chapters, even if your injury is weeks old. It is rarely too late to start doing things right.
• Keep every bill, letter, and photograph in one place, starting today.
• Do not give a recorded statement or sign anything for the other side's insurer until you have had advice.
• Write down the date of your injury and count forward two years. Then plan to call a lawyer long before that date, not near it.

You can read more about the kinds of cases we handle on our personal injury page.