What is a Personal Injury Victim Diary and Why Keep One?

If you are considering taking legal action as a result of suffering a physical injury from someone’s negligence, you might want to consider keeping a victim diary. This diary helps you keep track of your injury by providing important documentation of its complications when pursuing a legal claim.

A victim diary is written documentation of your injury that keeps track of the following items: the date of your entry, pain description, medication taken, medical visit, and bills paid as a result of your injury. Keeping track of the date of your entry allows you to create a timeline for your injury and any ailments you have suffered as a consequence of your injury. It is important to describe the pain you feel from your injury. You may describe your pain on a scale of 1-10 as this provides clear communication of the depth of your pain. You may also describe pain by including how it limits your daily life, for instance, you might not be able to bend down. You may also want to record any medication that was taken and visits to the doctor’s office as a result of your injury. This also creates a clear storyline of how this injury has affected your day-to-day life as you may have had to take time off from work to do so. And most importantly, you might want to consider writing down any bills paid from your injury. These bills may include medical visits or medication taken in order for you to recuperate from your injury. It is important to record these items as this list provides a comprehensive understanding of your injury and what action may be taken for your injury.

Although keeping a victim diary might sound easy enough, it is also important to be consistent in your entries. Consistency allows for you to create a clear narrative of your injury which helps you in your legal claim. It is recommended that you add entries to your diary every day or a few times a week as you recover from your injury. It is also important to be honest when writing your victim diary. Accuracy prevents misinformation and a misunderstanding of your injury. You may also want to keep your diary in a journal or download our FREE PDF of our victim diary.

Keeping a victim diary is very important because it helps you keep a written record of your pain. This is especially helpful because you do not need to rely on your memory when accounting for the major details of your pain and the effects of your medication. All in all, a victim diary helps with misinformation or loss of information, allowing you to successfully pursue a legal claim.