Recovering from a serious injury after a bus accident can be a long, painful, and incredibly challenging journey. Each new day can bring its own aches, pains, and discomfort making it feel like one hour blurs into the next. While you might be in a hurry to forget the agony associated with this traumatic experience, your ability to recollect individual moments from your recovery could be crucial to the success of your claim. 

While it’s not always necessary to start a personal injury journal, if you suffered a catastrophic injury, this diary can help you keep track of important information that might be important to building your case. Ultimately, your entries will give others a window into your life after the accident, demonstrating the ways in which you’ve suffered because of your injuries and providing context for your medical records. 

Let’s take a look at a few items you might want to include in your post-accident journal: 

Limitations 

Your injuries may inhibit you in a number of ways, so it’s important to keep track of your limitations. For instance, if you suffered a spinal cord injury, you may be unable to tackle household chores, prepare meals, go to work, or take care of your children.  

While some of your limitations may be noted in your medical records, these descriptions don’t tell the full story. Keeping detailed logs of how your condition has affected your everyday life, and how often your injuries impede you, can give others insight into the kinds of struggles you’ve faced and potentially help you build a case for lost wages, replacement services, and non-economic damages. 

Pain Levels 

Even minor injuries can lead to considerable pain and suffering, sensations that can rob you of the ability to enjoy your life. Thankfully, in California, you have a right to seek compensation for the agony you’ve experienced as a result of an injury you suffered in an accident, and this isn’t just limited to the physical pain associated with your condition. For instance, if the trauma of the incident has left you feeling anxious, stressed, or your limitations have caused you to sink into a deep depression, you may also be able to seek compensation for emotional distress.  

As a rule, you should note down every moment you experience pain, making sure to describe the affected area of your body, the duration of these sensations, and their severity. Your attorney might be able to use your entries in combination with expert witness deposition, eyewitness statements from loved ones, and psychiatric reports to build a case for a host of different non-economic damages. 

Description of the Accident 

In most cases, this will probably be your first entry into your post-accident journal. As soon as possible after the accident, you should write down everything you can remember that happened in the moments leading up to, during, and after the bus wreck.  

What was the bus driving doing? Did he or she seem distracted, fatigued, or under the influence? How many other passengers were on board? Did you write down their contact details? Did anyone record videos of the incident? What did the bus driver say immediately after the collision?  Answering these questions could help preserve your memories of this fateful day and may help guide your attorney’s investigation into what transpired. 

Discuss Your Case with a California Bus Accident Attorney Today 

Your personal injury journal entries are just one of many pieces of evidence you might need to help support your case. At Harris Personal Injury Lawyers, our attorneys may be able to help gather the other types of proof you will need by conducting an in-depth investigation into the wreck and consulting with expert witnesses if necessary. 

We have a long history of success both in and out of court—a track record that we believe is a testament to the strength of the personalized representation we offer every client. Contact us today at 1-800-GO-HARRIS or head over to our Contact Page to lock in a free case review with a California bus accident attorney.