What to write down after an accident
The notes that decide a claim are the ones taken in the first few weeks by the person it happened to.
Nobody keeps a record while they are in pain, frightened and dealing with a car, a job or a hospital. That is exactly when everybody else is making one. The police, the insurer, the clinic, the employer. Yours is the only account written from where you were standing.
You do not need a system. You need about four minutes a day, and to know what is worth four minutes.
THE FIRST WEEK
If you write down nothing else, write down these. Each takes a line.
- The date and time it happened and when you first got help
- Every part of you that hurts on the first day, before anything settles
- Who you told at work, at the roadside, at the clinic
- Every call. Date, who, what they said, what they promised
- What you could not do that you could do the week before
- What it cost in parking, taxis, prescriptions and time off
THE QUESTIONS ALREADY ASKED
The National MVA Recovery Guide
A fillable workbook for the daily record a claim is eventually judged on. It asks the questions so you are not deciding what matters while you are the one who is hurt.
- A page a day for symptoms, in your words
- Appointments, who you saw and what was said
- A call log with room for what was promised
- Costs, mileage and time off, as they happen
- Works in every province, printable or fillable on screen
$39 · instant download
Get the National MVA Recovery GuideBoth guides, $49. Add your province's MVA Companion Guide for the deadlines, forms and insurers where you live, and the discount applies at checkout.Normally $63.99.
If your accident was weeks or months ago, today is still the right day to start. A record that begins late still counts, and your phone will help you fill in what came before.
What gets forgotten first
Not the accident. People remember the accident. What goes is everything around it, and it goes faster than anyone expects. Memory is not the problem. Ordinary life closes over the details within days.
The exact time. How long you waited. The name of the person who said they would call back. Which shoulder it was. Whether the headaches started that night or three days later.
None of it looked like evidence at the time. All of it is evidence now.
Write it the day it happens, not the day it matters
A note made on the day carries weight that a note made later does not. It was written before anyone knew what would turn out to be important, which is why it is believed.
There is a rule behind that. If a claim reaches a hearing and your memory of an event has faded, Canadian courts can admit a record you made while it was fresh as evidence in its own right. A diary entry counts. It has to have been written down reliably, close enough to the event that it was still vivid, and you have to be able to say now that it was accurate then.
A text message counts. So does a line in a clinic note, a message to a supervisor, a friend who remembers the call. You do not have to have kept a journal for the record to exist. You have to be able to find what already does.
Go through your phone this week while the dates still mean something to you.
Symptoms change, and the change is the evidence
A single note saying your shoulder hurt is worth far less than eight weeks of notes showing when it hurt, how much and what it stopped you doing. One entry is a claim. A pattern is a record.
The same is true in the other direction. A week where things improved belongs in the record too. Leaving it out is how a careful record starts to look like an argument.
Every phone call is a fact
Date, time, who you spoke to, what they said, what they promised and the number you rang. Claims are decided in phone calls and almost nothing said in one is written down unless you write it.
If somebody says they will call back, note the date they said. If they do not, that gap becomes part of your record rather than a frustration you half remember.
The deadlines are separate, and they have already started
What you write down is one half. Doing the right thing at the right time for where you live is the other. The clocks differ by province and by whether the injury happened at work or on the road.
Your Recovery. Documented. Protected.
The National MVA Recovery Guide is the daily record all of this hangs on. $39, or $49 with your province's companion.
Not ready for a guide? The checklist for the first week is at hurtsquare.ca/7. It is free.
This page is general information for people in Canada. It is not legal or medical advice. Rules differ by province and change over time. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a representative or your provincial insurer or board.