Pain Journals in 21st Century North Carolina Personal Injury Claims

When I’m representing people in personal injury claims in North Carolina, I recommend that they keep a pain journal. The pain journal is a great way for the client to put their personal stamp on a claim and to make their voice heard to the adjuster who will initially evaluate their claim. Mainly, it shows what kind of witness you’re going to be for your case if we have to litigate. This is not even mentioning the cathartic effect of being able to express how you feel while you’re struggling. The long and short of it is that pain journals are a great idea in injury claims.

Having said that, even though I have written blog posts (plural) about how to do these and provide this information to EVERY single client, people still have questions about how to write their pain journal.

In terms of content, it’s simple: Include three things…what hurts, how badly it hurts, and how it’s affecting you in your day to day life. “My neck hurt. It felt like an 8 on a scale of 1-10. I was going to go to the Whitesnake concert again, probably on my own, but I couldn’t because my neck hurt so badly and I wouldn’t be able to head bang, which would take ALL of the joy out of that experience. David Coverdale is probably almost dead if he isn’t dead already so maybe I missed this opportunity forever because of this.” GREAT journal entry.

Format? Don’t care! Some people like spread sheets. Some people like calendars. Some people go narrative paragraphs with date headings. It really doesn’t matter. Make it your own!

But what I DON’T want you to do is write it down BY HAND in a notebook like you’re on Little House on the Prairie. Please, please, please for the love of all things holy, do not do that.

Think about it this way: You’re writing this to share with a stranger who is going to judge it. I need to be able to get it to that stranger and they need to be able to read it. Can we read your writing easily? Why make it harder? Wouldn’t it be easier to read if it were typed? And by far, the most common way of transmitting documents these days is electronically. If you write in a notebook, we’re going to have to either a) have it transcribed (time! money!) or b) tear the notebook up and scan EACH page. What a pain.

Follow the instructions. Use a Google Doc (or Sheet…whatever) or a Word doc. That way you can email it to me and I can edit it! THAT is the best way to create a pain journal.

So please, please, please do not write your pain journal in a notebook.