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If you’ve been injured as a result of the negligence of someone else, regardless of whether your injuries were sustained from a motor vehicle accident, physical assault, faulty product or slip and fall, there is one very important step that every injured person has to undertake.
The law places a legal obligation on all of us, if injured, to take reasonable steps to get better and ensure our injuries heal. This legal obligation is called the duty to mitigate your damages (injuries).
Whether injuries are soft tissue in nature, or broken bones, all the way up to spinal cord and brain injuries , the duty to mitigate normally requires an injured person to seek professional medical advice to treat their injuries.
Failure to seek medical advice or more generally, failure to take steps to help yourself recover from injuries, may mean a failure to meet your legal obligation to mitigate your damages. There are all kinds of situations that arise after an injury that could lead to a failure to mitigate.
One of the easiest ways to fail in your obligation to mitigate your damages is to ignore treatment recommendations from your doctor. If a doctor recommends a particular rehabilitation treatment (like physiotherapy for example) and you decide, without reasonable excuse, to ignore the recommendation, your injury compensation may be reduced as a result of having failed to take reasonable steps to get better.
If you’re injured and contemplating pursuing an injury claim, it is critically important to continually remind yourself of your obligation to mitigate your damages. The obligation is ongoing as long as your injuries are ongoing. Seeking medical advice, therefore, is important from both a legal and medical perspective. It is wise to seek legal advice to fully understand the scope of your duty to mitigate.
Greg Pratch is a lawyer and partner with Pushor Mitchell LLP. He practices in civil litigation with a particular focus of personal injury matters and employment law. In his personal injury practice, he has helped individuals injured in both BC and Alberta recover compensation for all types of injuries including whiplash, soft tissue injuries, chronic pain, broken bones, spinal injuries and brain injuries. In his employment law practice, Greg advises both employers and employees on all matters relating to employment, including wrongful dismissal, human rights issues and employment standards legislation. Greg also advises clients on general commercial disputes and tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency. Be sure to connect with Greg Pratch on Twitter @OkanaganLawyer. You can contact Greg at (250) 869-1194, or at pratch@pushormitchell.com.
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