How a Good Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help
The lawyer’s reputation as a trial attorney. For personal injury lawyers who routinely take their cases in front of juries, their involvement alone will cause the insurance company to increase the offer in the case. This is because they know that a good lawyer who is willing to try a case will not only cost them more money to defend the case, but will likely be more effective in front of a jury if negotiations break down. Insurance companies know the lawyers who always settle their cases, and they make lower offers to those lawyers.
Communication with your doctors. Your personal injury lawyer will talk to your doctors to learn specific information about your injury, how you were injured, what your future looks like, and whether your injury is permanent. This can be a very effective way for you to articulate to an insurance company the exact injury and how it is effecting your life. Your lawyer should be able to send a letter or meet with your doctor asking him or her what caused your injury and whether you will need any treatment in the future. Providing this information to an insurance company, or the jury, will increase the value of your case because it provides specific details about how this injury has affected your life.
Investigation of the at-fault person. The reality is that juries and insurance companies will value your case higher when the at fault person has acted particularly poorly in causing your injury. For example, a drunk driver crashing into you is a different case than just a person who took his eyes off the road. A thorough investigation of the at fault party is essential to increasing the value of your case. Was the defendant on the phone at the time of the car crash? Did the corporation hire someone who they shouldn’t have? Did the other driver have a suspended license but drive anyway? All of these examples would increase the value of your claim, and your personal injury lawyer should thoroughly investigate all the possible ways to show the defendant acted egregiously when he or she caused your injury.
Articulating the impact of this injury on your life. Its important to have someone else speak for how your injury has affected you. When you have to speak for yourself, its harder to convey things because you are obviously biased. A good personal injury lawyer will find people in your life who will testify about how this has affected you and your lifestyle. This is something that insurance companies don’t understand, but its one of the few things you can do that a jury really truly understands. When other people in your life talk about what they have seen from you and your injuries, it has a real impact on a jury. It’s your lawyer’s job to find these people and prepare them to testify.
Trying your case before a jury. When insurance companies refuse to be reasonable, which is often, the case will have to be ready to go to a jury. Personal injury lawyers must try cases before juries or they will be held hostage by insurance companies that don’t take them seriously. A good personal injury lawyer will always be thinking about how to try your case, even at your first meeting. Everything the lawyer does should be to prepare for a jury trial, even if it seems unlikely. Never hire a personal injury lawyer who does not consistently try cases before juries.