Under Florida law, the person who causes an accident can be sued for damages. The damages that one can generally seek are medical bills past and future, lost wages past and future, and non economic damages (generally pain and suffering) past and future. If someone does not go to a doctor, then they would not have past medical bills and obviously obtaining future medical bills would be difficult in that scenario. If someone did not go to the doctor, they likely would not have lost wages. Most people focus on the “pain and suffering” or “inconvenience” when they ask this sort of a question. However, under Florida law, a permanent injury (or death, significant scarring or permanent disfigurement) is required to be entitled to any sort of non economic damages like pain and suffering. A permanent injury is generally proven by medical testimony and thus a doctor is necessary. Someone generally cannot prove a permanent injury with their own testimony. Thus, doctors and medical treatment is generally required to have a case for injuries in a car accident in Florida.
