How to Support a Loved One Through Injury and Legal Action

By Jenna Brown

Being injured in an accident can be life-changing. Whether someone is injured in a car accident or as the result of a defective product, they can suffer loss of mobility, chronic pain, and more. Suing the party responsible can provide compensation for those losses and give some peace of mind, but taking legal action can also be very stressful. The legal process can be very overwhelming and fraught with uncertainty.

If you love someone who has been injured and is taking legal action to get just compensation, you have the power to help the situation by offering the appropriate support. Whether your wife, father, daughter, son, best friend or beloved neighbor is going through this hard time, here are a few things you can do to provide support:


1. Drive them to Appointments

Your loved one is likely to have a lot of appointments, ranging from meetings with a lawyer to checkups with a doctor to occupational therapy visits. However, your loved one may not be able to drive to these appointments, either because of mobility issues or because they are taking serious pain medications. Offering to drive them to these appointments can provide a needed service while also reducing some of their stress.

Driving your loved one to these appointments also gives you the chance to have some one-on-one time and to catch up on what's been happening.

2. Help around the House

When someone has been seriously injured in an accident, doing basic chores can be very difficult and even overwhelming. You can support your loved one by bringing over meals that are ready to eat or that only need to be heated up. You can also offer help by doing things around the house, like loading the dishwasher, vacuuming the carpets or putting the laundry in the dryer.

Make sure you don't overstep when offering this help. Some people are sensitive about having others puttering around their house or trying to do chores. Not everyone likes someone else going through their dirty laundry. Offer help, but don't push. You don't want to make your loved one feel more uncomfortable or stressed out by your persistence.

3. Provide Financial Support

Your loved one may soon get the financial compensation they deserve for their injuries if their legal case is successful. Specialized attorneys like the HHK Law Firm have recovered over $35 billion for injury victims, so financial compensation is certainly not rare or necessarily difficult.

However, in the meantime, there may be overwhelming medical bills or suffer a loss of income. Provide financial support if you can. You don't have to make a huge loan. Simply buying the groceries or paying the light bill for the month may be enough to help.

4. Just Listen

What  your loved one likely needs more than anything else during this stressful time is someone to listen. Let your loved one vent to you about their fear, frustration, and anxiety. Don't try to "fix" the problem. Just let your loved one know that you are there to listen. Simply having that emotional support means the world to people.

A personal injury lawsuit can be overwhelming and stressful, and those feelings can be exacerbated by the pain and suffering of an injury. Doing what you can to support a loved one going through this situation can help make things a little easier. Try some of these tips, or just ask your loved one how you can best support them.