Treatment is the longest phase of most injury cases and the one where clients go quiet. This message exists to explain why the quiet period is not the firm doing nothing.

When to send this

You set this. One day after the phase changes is the default worth starting from: soon enough to feel connected to what happened, and far enough back that a phase set by mistake can be corrected before anything reaches a client.

This is the phase that most rewards more than one message. Treatment runs for months and is where clients go quietest, so a single message on day one is doing all its work in week one and none of it in month four. A second at thirty days and a third at ninety, all firing off the same phase change, cost nothing extra to set up.

Vary what each one asks for rather than repeating yourself. Day one explains why treatment matters; later ones can ask for a specific thing, like adding a new provider or logging how the last month went.

The date the phase was updated may be well after the client's first appointment, so write "your case is in the treatment phase" rather than "you have started treatment this week."

What your client is thinking right now

Nothing appears to be happening. They are going to appointments, missing work, and hearing very little from you. Some of them are starting to wonder whether they should stop treating because it is expensive and inconvenient and no one has told them it matters.

That last thought is the one that costs cases.

What to cover

Treatment is the case right now. Say it directly. Clients think of medical care as separate from the legal work. It is not, and nobody has told them.
Going to every appointment matters. Missed appointments give the insurance company a story about how hurt they really were.
Tell doctors everything. Clients minimise pain to their doctors out of politeness. What is not in the record did not happen.
Tell us when things change. New symptoms, a new doctor, going back to work, a new address or phone number.
What you are doing meanwhile. Even one line. Clients assume silence means nothing is happening.

Their job in this phase

This is the phase with the most for a client to do, so name the screens:

Log how they feel in Health Check-ins and Symptom Tracker
Add each provider to their Doctor List
Photograph visible injuries in Injury Photos
Add any bill that arrives in the mail to Files
Log missed work under Lost Income

Asking for one of these per message works better than asking for all five in one.

Sample message

Your case is in the treatment phase. Right now, the most valuable work on your case is the work you are doing at your appointments.

Two things help more than anything else. Go to every appointment your doctors recommend. And tell them exactly how you feel, including the days that are bad. If it is not in your medical records, we cannot use it later.

In the app, please log how you are feeling a few times a week and add each doctor you see. It takes about a minute.

If a new symptom shows up, tell your doctor first, then tell us. Call [phone] any time.

https://youtu.be/quZfGGXSpBw

A shorter version

You are in the treatment phase. Go to every appointment, and tell your doctors exactly how you feel, including the bad days.

In the app, log how you are feeling and add any new doctor you see. Call [phone] if anything changes.

Looking ahead

One line about what ends this phase gives the client something to aim at: "When your doctors say you are as healed as you are going to get, we gather your records and move to the next step." That is also the plain-English version of "reaching maximum medical improvement," which is not a phrase to use with a client.

What not to say

Do not say "gap in treatment." Say "missed appointments can slow your case down and give the insurance company something to argue about."
Ask them to add, not to review. "Log how you are feeling this week" gets a response; "review your treatment records" does not.
Do not guess when treatment will end. It ends when their doctors say it does.
Do not scold. A message about a missed appointment should offer help getting another one. Clients miss appointments because of childcare, transport and money, and a lecture does not fix any of those.
Name where to call. Give a phone number and say what happens when they use it.

The video

Free for any firm to use.

There is a Spanish cut as well: Fase de Tratamiento. Match the video's language to the message it sits in.

To embed it, paste the link on a line by itself in the message body, with nothing else on that line.

This is also the best of the six to resend on its own if a client has gone quiet for a month.

Key goals

The client understands treatment and the case are the same thing
The client is logging how they feel
The client knows to report changes without being asked twice

What to Say in a Treatment Phase Message