Preserving Documents and Records

The hospital bill. The pay stubs from the weeks you missed. The receipt for the rental car. The mileage to physical therapy. Lawyers call these economic damages: losses with a dollar figure attached. They are recoverable, but only if they can be proven. An adjuster will not take your word for them, and a jury will not be allowed to guess. This chapter of The DC, Maryland & Virginia Injury Guide is about proving what the injury cost. Its companion, Gathering Evidence While It Still Exists, is about proving how it happened.

Key points

• Keep every bill, record, pay stub, receipt, and letter in one place, on paper and in digital copies.
• Ask providers for itemized bills and complete records, not summaries.
• Maryland and Virginia have statutes that make medical bills easier to prove at trial, but only with complete, properly handled paperwork.
• Find the insurance declarations pages for your own policy and every policy in your household.
• Keep a short, honest journal of your symptoms and what you could not do.

Why does paperwork matter so much?

Because unproven losses are not paid. Thorough records can substantially increase the economic damages in a case, since costs that would otherwise be forgotten get counted. Missing records can erase them. And because adjusters often look at the size of the documented losses when they value pain and suffering, the paper trail affects the whole claim, not only the part it directly proves.

Two DMV statutes show how much good paperwork matters. In Maryland, in qualifying cases, a written bill for health care expenses can be admitted without a provider's testimony as evidence of the amount, fairness, and reasonableness of the charges, if the party gives the required notice and copies to the other side at least 60 days before trial (Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-104). In Virginia, the authenticity of medical bills and the reasonableness of the charges are presumed when the injured person identifies the bill and testifies about the provider, the services, and their connection to the injury, provided the records were furnished to the other side at least 30 days before trial (Va. Code § 8.01-413.01). Both shortcuts depend on having complete, itemized bills in hand.

The checklist

The police or incident report

Get the full report from the agency that wrote it, including any supplements, diagrams, and photographs. For a fall, keep whatever incident report or confirmation the business or landlord gave you. Keep the report number and the officer's name and agency. The First 72 Hours explains how to find out which agency has it.

Medical records and itemized bills

Request records and bills from every provider: the ambulance service, the emergency department, the hospital, the radiology group, every physician, the physical therapist, and the pharmacy. Ask for itemized bills that list each charge with its billing code, not a one-line balance. Ask for the complete chart, not the visit summary handed out at checkout. The chart holds the history you gave, the exam findings, the imaging reports, and the provider's assessment, which are the evidence described in Focus on Treatment First.

Explanations of benefits

Each time a health plan, Medicare, or Medicaid processes a claim, it sends an explanation of benefits showing what was billed, what was paid, what was written off, and what you owe. Keep every one. They show what was actually paid, and they are the starting point for any repayment claim against your settlement, covered in Medical Bills, Health Insurance, and Liens.

PIP and MedPay paperwork

Keep your PIP or MedPay claim form, every payment letter, and any denial. In D.C., keep a copy of any written PIP election or notice from the insurer about the 60-day election period. These show what has been paid and by whom, which affects how a final settlement is divided.

Pharmacy receipts and out-of-pocket costs

Prescriptions, over-the-counter medication, braces, crutches, a shower chair, a heating pad: keep the receipts and write on each one what it was for. Small costs add up over a long recovery.

Mileage, parking, and transit

Travel to medical care is part of the cost of the injury. Keep a simple log: date, provider, round-trip miles, parking, tolls, and rideshare or Metro fares. A note on your phone is fine.

Lost income

Keep pay stubs from before and after the injury, and ask your employer for a letter on letterhead stating your position, rate of pay, normal hours, the dates you missed, and whether you used sick or annual leave to cover the time. If you came back on light duty or lost overtime, a promotion, or a bonus, the letter should say so. If you are self-employed, start gathering tax returns, profit and loss statements, invoices, and records of canceled jobs now. That category is the hardest to rebuild later.

Photographs in their original form

Keep scene and injury photos in their original digital form, which carries the date and time in the file data. Do not edit, crop, or filter them, and do not rely on copies compressed by a messaging app. Back them up. Add photos of your recovery over time: scars, incisions, casts, and the equipment you had to use.

Vehicle and property damage

Keep the repair estimate, the insurer's appraisal, any total loss valuation, title paperwork, the rental agreement, and photos of the damage before repair. Damage photos also show the force of the impact when an adjuster calls it a "minor" crash.

Insurance declarations pages, yours and your household's

The declarations page is the short summary at the front of an auto policy listing coverages and limits. Find yours, then find the pages for every vehicle insured by anyone in your household. Your PIP, MedPay, and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage may come from a relative's policy as well as your own. Using Your Own Insurance and our UM/UIM claims page explain why.

Health plan information

Keep a copy of your health insurance card, front and back, and the plan's summary of benefits if you can get it. Whether your coverage is through a private employer, the federal government, the marketplace, Medicare, or Medicaid affects who may claim repayment from your settlement and how. Your lawyer will need to know which it is.

Every letter from every insurer, and a call log

Keep every letter, email, and text from any insurer, yours or theirs, and keep the envelopes. Log every call: date, time, the adjuster's name, and a line about what was said. If an adjuster makes an offer or a promise by phone, write it down and ask for it in writing.

Your recovery journal

A short note each day or few days about your pain, sleep, medication, and what you could not do is the clearest record of the human side of an injury. It is also how you will remember, a year from now, the events you missed. Keep it factual and private; your lawyer will decide whether and how to use it.

For families after a death

If a family member died, keep the death certificate, funeral and burial bills, any court papers appointing a personal representative of the estate, and records of the support and household services the person provided. Our wrongful death page explains who may bring these claims.

A simple system that works

You do not need software. Get an accordion file and label the sections: report and scene; medical records; bills and EOBs; PIP and MedPay; receipts and mileage; work and income; vehicle; insurance policies and letters; journal. Scan or photograph each document as it arrives and save it to a matching set of folders on your phone or computer, then back that up to a cloud account so a lost phone does not mean a lost file.

Bring the whole file to your first meeting with a lawyer. An organized file saves weeks of record gathering and makes an early evaluation more accurate.

What not to do with your records

• Do not throw anything away because it seems unimportant. Let your lawyer decide.
• Do not edit or annotate original photos or documents. Make notes on copies.
• Do not sign a blanket medical authorization for the other driver's insurer. It lets them collect your entire medical history.
• Do not post your records, photos, or journal anywhere, including private groups.

Related reading

• Health insurance paid your bills: do you still have a claim?
• Liens on a Maryland settlement: health insurers and Medicare
• A D.C. law that limits health insurer repayment claims
• What uninsured motorist coverage is and why your declarations page matters
• Maryland's household exclusion and Murphy v. GEICO
• Guide chapter 10: medical bills, health insurance, and liens

Responsible attorneys: Ryan C. Posey and Jacob M. Lebowitz. Posey Lebowitz PLLC, 3221 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007.