What Do Personal Injury Lawyers Look For?

When you contact a personal injury attorney, you may wonder just what that lawyer will look for and how it may impact your ability to pursue compensation for your injuries.

What, exactly, does a personal injury lawyer need to know? What evidence does a personal injury look for? Take a look into the various elements that a personal injury lawyer may consider when evaluating your claim.

What Lawyers Look for Before Accepting a Claim

Many personal injury lawyers accept cases on a contingent fee basis: they get paid after they win, usually based on a percentage of the compensation they can recover for the injured party. Before accepting a claim, therefore, lawyers want to feel reasonably confident that they can help the injured party recover reasonable compensation for those injuries.

1. Who caused the accident?

Liability can serve as a point of contention in many personal injury claims. Sometimes, the liable party freely admits liability but does not offer the compensation the injured individual really deserves. Other times, however, the liable individual or entity may refuse to acknowledge causing the accident, which may mean that the lawyer needs to help you investigate.

If you caused your accident or contributed to the majority of it, you may not have the right to recover compensation for your injuries, and a lawyer might choose not to accept the case. On the other hand, if another party caused your accident, even if that party refuses to accept liability, the lawyer may accept the case.

A lawyer may also accept a case because multiple individuals or parties all share liability for the accident.

Take, for example, an auto accident involving a big truck. The big truck driver may have caused the accident because he fell asleep behind the wheel. Further investigation, however, shows that the driver’s company pushes its drivers to exceed the federally-limited number of hours they can legally drive each day.

The trucking company, therefore, may bear partial liability for the accident, which could increase the compensation you can recover.

2. What injuries did you suffer?

Often, personal injury lawyers will look at the injuries you suffered and use those injuries to gauge how much compensation you might recover as part of your claim. If, for example, you suffered a traumatic brain injury or a spinal cord injury, you might have the right to more compensation than if you suffered only minor injuries.

A lawyer also wants to know that you suffered some type of injury before moving forward with a personal injury claim. To file a personal injury claim, you will need to show that the other party’s negligent actions caused damage to you in some way, usually involving significant bodily injury.

Suppose, for example, that you chose to stay at a vacation rental property for your beach vacation. The rental property has a set of stairs leading down to the beach. On arrival, you note that the stairs look unsafe, so you choose to use an alternate way to get down to the beach. Eventually, you realize that the property owner has not maintained those stairs at all, and they provide a substantial fall hazard. Because you avoided a fall, you do not have grounds for a personal injury claim.

Likewise, suppose that you walk into the grocery store on a wet and rainy day. While doing your shopping, you realize that someone’s umbrella has dripped down one aisle. You avoid walking on the drips and do not suffer a fall. You might let the workers at the grocery store know about the spill and even find yourself frustrated when those grocery store workers do not take care of cleaning up the water, but since you did not suffer a fall, you do not have grounds for a personal injury claim.

On the other hand, if you did not notice the danger ahead of time and ended up suffering a serious fall in either of the above scenarios, you would have the right to file a personal injury claim. Before deciding to work with you, however, the lawyer might need to see evidence of those injuries, including a look at your medical bills or diagnoses and the current limitations that you face because of those injuries.

3. Can the lawyer help you recover more compensation than you could obtain on your own?

Lawyers want to offer a benefit to your personal injury claim. Ideally, a lawyer should help you recover more compensation than you can get on your own. If the lawyer does not feel that he can help you as you pursue compensation for your injuries, he may not take the case.

Suppose, for example, that you suffered several injuries in a car accident. You submit your medical bills to the insurance company, which offers you full compensation for those bills and for the lost wages that you claim alongside your other financial losses from the accident. The lawyer who looks over that settlement offer might determine that you may not have the right to acquire additional compensation or feel that pursuing that compensation will prove more expensive than the additional help you could gain.

Likewise, suppose that you suffer a slip and fall at a major retailer. That retailer contacts you shortly after the accident with a settlement offer, potentially to avoid further legal action and any media attention. You receive a generous settlement offer that includes compensation for your medical costs, any wages you lost because of the accident, and even pain and suffering. Your lawyer might take a look at the offer and determine that you cannot realistically expect to secure additional compensation, so he may decline to take the case.

What Does a Lawyer Look for After Accepting a Case?

After accepting a case, a lawyer will take the time to look deep into the various elements of the claim, including the suffering you may have faced due to your injuries.

1. Evaluating the evidence.

Before accepting a case, lawyers will often take a cursory look at the evidence related to the case, including how difficult it might prove to establish liability in the case. After accepting a case, on the other hand, many lawyers will take a much deeper look at that evidence, including all the factors that may have played into the accident.

Witness Accounts

In many personal injury claims, witness accounts can offer critical insights into who caused the accident. Witnesses often have a view of the accident that even you might not have. For example, a witness might have noticed a slippery and wet floor, while you completely failed to note a spill or dripped water until after your fall. Witnesses may also offer deeper insights into auto accidents, since they may have a clearer look at the actions of both drivers.

Witness accounts often prove most accurate immediately after the accident. The more time goes by after the accident, the more witness memories may fade, and the more difficult it may prove to get an accurate assessment of what led to the incident.

Video or Photographic Evidence

Video and photographic evidence can help transport lawyers and insurance companies to the accident scene. Obviously, those individuals cannot see the circumstances that led to the accident in person. Videos and photos, however, can provide vital insights into the actual scene of the accident and the factors that may have contributed to it. Sometimes, photo evidence can offer deeper insights into the many causes of an accident.

Ideally, you should take photos at the scene of the accident to better identify all factors that may have played into the accident. However, if you cannot take photos, your lawyer may revisit the scene of the accident to get a better feel for the scene and what factors may have contributed.

Records

Depending on the type of accident that occurred, your lawyer may need to go through records that will help establish the liable party’s long-term negligence. For example, a truck driver’s records could serve to establish how many hours the truck driver spent on the road or to show that the truck driver routinely exceeded the federally-mandated number of hours he should have spent on the road.

A business’s maintenance records could show that the workers acknowledged a potential hazard, but did nothing to make sure it got cleaned up or to decrease the risk of injury to future patrons.

2. Looking into your injuries.

Your lawyer will take a close look at the injuries you sustained in the accident and your medical records. Your injuries will often serve as the foundation of your personal injury claim. Your lawyer may want to learn more about your injuries, including:

What medical procedures you have gone through.

Your lawyer will take a close look at the full extent of your medical bills and the procedures you have needed to treat your injuries. Those medical procedures, and the bills associated with them, will serve as one of the most vital elements of your personal injury claim since you will need to pursue compensation for those medical costs. Your lawyer will also want to know about any alternative procedures you may have had: things like chiropractic care for a back or neck injury, for example.

What permanent damage you may have because of your injuries.

Some injuries can lead to lifelong consequences. As the victim of a serious accident, you have to live with those limitations, which may include ongoing pain or a host of other challenges. Your lawyer will want to know about any permanent damage you may have, including whether you anticipate future medical procedures or bills because of those injuries.

What limitations your injuries have placed on your life.

Your injuries can lead to immense limitations. They can prevent you from enjoying the activities you once enjoyed or make it difficult for you to spend time with friends and loved ones. You may even find that your injuries prevent you from engaging in your usual self-care tasks, or from cleaning up around the home. Often, serious injuries can permanently change the course of your life.

Your lawyer wants to hear about those limitations. Many personal injury claims include compensation for pain and suffering: compensation that helps cover the non-financial losses you suffered as a result of your accident. By talking to your lawyer about your limitations, you may find it much easier to establish the compensation you deserve for pain and suffering.

3. Checking the insurance policy.

Insurance policies often contain detailed lists of what they will and will not cover, policy limits, and even circumstances under which they will cover certain types of injuries, versus circumstances under which they may offer no assistance at all. As he handles your personal injury claim, your lawyer will take a look at the insurance policy that covers the liable party. Your lawyer wants to know what that policy covers, what limits it has, and what compensation you deserve under the terms of that policy.

Having a lawyer look over the insurance policy that covers the liable party can prove vital. Often, lawyers can identify loopholes and exceptions that can help you recover the full compensation you deserve for severe injuries sustained in an accident, rather than leaving you struggling with an insurance company that seems determined not to offer you the compensation you should receive.

Having a Lawyer Can Make a Huge Difference in Your Personal Injury Claim

Trying to handle a personal injury claim on your own can prove extremely frustrating. A lawyer can look into all the different details of your claim and put together a more effective, compelling package that establishes the full compensation you deserve.