What Are the Chances of Winning a Personal Injury Lawsuit

If an accident hurt you, you’re probably wondering if you have grounds to sue the other party. One question that countless people ask is: “What are the chances of winning a personal injury lawsuit?”

Did you know that the U.S. Department of Justice reported that between 90 percent and 95 percent of personal injury cases don’t even make it to trial? They usually settle beforehand. The small percentage of cases that do go to court rarely end up in the plaintiff’s favor. This is often due to poor representation, little evidence, or a plaintiff without a lawyer.

What Do You Do After An Injury?

After you have suffered an injury, follow these tips:

• Collect all of the evidence from the scene that you can. Everyone has a cell phone these days. Get it out and start taking pictures or videos. The goal is to prove that the other party is liable.
• Seek medical attention. Never insist that you do not need medical attention after an injury!
• Take care what you talk about publicly regarding your injury and how it injured you. Keep quiet about it until you talk to your lawyer.
• Don’t wait too long to decide if legal action is right for your injury. Statutes of limitations restrict the time you have to seek compensation.

Different Types of Personal Injury Cases

A person can suffer many types of injuries. The type of personal injury will decide what legal options a person has to collect compensation. For instance, you may need to file an individual lawsuit or join a class-action suit.

Injuries can include:

• Whiplash
• Contusions
• Muscle strains/sprains
• Internal bleeding
• Brain/head injuries
• Broken bones/fractures
• Internal organ damage
• Wrongful death

Accidents can involve:

• Premises – This means getting an injury on someone else’s property-for instance, a slip-and-fall injury. This can happen when the property owner fails to maintain the premises or doesn’t have clear signs posted about dangerous conditions on the property.
• Pedestrians – This could take place in a parking lot, parking garage, or at a crosswalk.
• Bicycles and motorcycles.
• Boating
• Defective Products – When using a product results in serious injury.

Burden of Proof

A successful personal injury case depends on whether or not you can establish fault with the other party. For instance, if you can prove that the other party was negligent and their negligence caused the injury, you may prevail in court.

To win, you must establish:

• Duty of care – A driver must watch out for others. If you own a property, you need to ensure that no one can get hurt on your property. This attentiveness is what duty of care means. Both the motorist and the property owner owe a duty of care to others. Therefore, if a motorist or property owner has not taken the proper steps to ensure the safety of others, this may prove that they were negligent.
• Breached the duty of care – If a person acted in a careless, reckless, or intentional manner that caused an injury, you may prove they breached their duty of care.
• Causation – This is a direct link between the injury that has occurred and the defendant’s negligent behavior.

What Increases & Decreases Your Chances of Winning?

No one can tell you if you will win your case. All legal matters are unpredictable. It helps to hire a lawyer who can gather and present the proof to win your case.

A person can either increase or decrease their chances of winning.

Here are a few things to consider in your personal injury case:

• Document Everything! Starting from the moment the accident happened, you should focus on getting as much evidence as possible. As mentioned before, a cell phone can help you. Taking pictures of your injury right away, taking pictures of where it happened and everything around you can help. This will help your attorney immensely, but it will also help you remember more. In an accident, a lot goes on. Your adrenaline rushes, and the accident takes you off guard. So you might forget potentially crucial information. Taking pictures of everything can help you recall certain key elements if your attorney asks you about them.
• Keep the details of your case quiet! Never talk to anyone about your injuries or the situation that caused them. Don’t put anything on social media. Don’t release the details. Even if people ask you what happened, don’t make assumptions. First, you need to talk to your lawyer to find out what is or isn’t safe to say about your injury. You can inadvertently cause yourself to lose money if you talk or write to others.
• Insurance providers are not your friends! They want to keep their money. Even if they seem to genuinely care about your injuries or the incident, they merely want to get information to strengthen their case and diminish yours. They know how to manipulate people, and they get paid to do so. They will try very hard to get you to say something detrimental to your case that they can use against you later. Always seek legal advice before you talk to insurance adjusters about an accident.
• Transparency with your attorney is a must! Make sure that you tell the truth and present your lawyer with all the facts and details in the case. Don’t hide things that you think might hurt your case from your lawyer. Just be honest. Your lawyer may have a different way of looking at the details and still be able to use it to your benefit.
• Is your doctor on your side? To strengthen your personal injury case, you need your doctor. The evidence they can provide is crucial, whether through treatment records or direct testimony. A doctor is usually considered an expert witness. What they say will carry weight in your settlement or if your case goes to trial.
• Don’t exaggerate the details! Overemphasizing details can make it easy to take comments out of context. You don’t want your remarks to damage your case.
• Your lawyer is on your side! Don’t have a power struggle or communication breakdown with your personal injury attorney. The two of you are fighting for the same goal, which is to get you money for your injuries, pain, and suffering. If you don’t agree, have a private conversation and work it out. If you and your lawyer are not on the same team, your success rate of getting compensation can suffer greatly.
• Be patient! No court case resolves overnight, especially personal injury cases. It takes a lot of work by your attorney to negotiate terms and fight behind the scenes to get you the maximum dollar amount. There’s no need to get stressed out because the process is “taking too long.”
• Understand the best and worst-case scenarios. Talk to your lawyer openly about what to expect. Let your personal injury attorney know how far you’re willing to go and what you want to achieve. Explore all realistic, acceptable outcomes.
• The other side may call your character into question. The other party is trying to win just as you are. They may even go through your life with a fine-tooth comb to snag anything from your past to attack you. Be on your best behavior during this process. Also, if you were involved in other lawsuits, tell your attorney the details. That way, they can prepare a response beforehand. You don’t want your attorney taken off guard because of past or current behavior.
• Prepare to settle. Most outcomes, as stated above, result in settlements. Don’t think of it as a bad thing. This will expedite compensation. Don’t think of it as selling out. It gets your money much faster.

Types of Compensation

If you want to receive money for your injuries, you need to first prove that you have suffered injuries. Compensation is also called damages, and it comes in many forms.

There are two main types of damages:

1. Economic: These damages include injuries that deal directly with suffering financially. They have a specific monetary value.
2. Non-economic: These are damages that don’t have a specific monetary value. The pain, discomfort, and future complexities that your injury may have caused you don’t come with a price tag. This is where negotiations come in.

Here are some examples of the many damages a personal injury lawyer may get compensation for the victim:

• Rehabilitation
• Long-term disability assistance
• Compensation for physical deformities resulting from the incident
• Loss of consortium
• The cost of medical treatments
• Cost of repairing property damage
• Lost wages
• A decrease in earning abilities due to injuries
• Reduced quality of life
• Loss of parental guidance
• Mental anguish
• Pain and suffering

Experienced and Skilled Representation

This is one of those times that the adage, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” speaks volumes. A lawyer can do a lot more to secure a win than you.

The accident victim must prove that negligence injured them. This is a big task for any individual who has not studied law. If you don’t know how the personal injury process works, you can significantly damage your case. You can end up with a slim-to-none chance of recovering monetary compensation for your injuries. Hiring a lawyer is the best way to increase your odds of winning.

To successfully win your personal injury case, you need a solid strategy. Hiring the right personal injury attorney is the most effective way to ensure the maximum recovery possible for injuries suffered.

This process can overwhelm you. It is your attorney’s job to handle the tough battles for you. The only thing you need to do is focus on healing and getting back to your normal way of life. Concentrating on recovering physically, mentally, and emotionally is your job. Your attorney had the rest.