Available 24/7Every personal injury victim has the right to represent themselves in court and discussions with insurance companies. However, doing so could put you at a significant disadvantage. If you’ve been injured, should you hire a personal injury lawyer? The Law Office of Taylor S. Braithwaite explains why it is a good idea.
Why You Should Not Handle Your Case on Your Own
Here are just a few reasons why representing yourself in a personal injury lawsuit is not advised:
Not understanding the law and court rules
If you decide to represent yourself, you will be expected to understand and abide by the same rules and procedures that attorneys do. This means not only having a working knowledge of statutes and court decisions but also knowing the various rules that govern personal injury cases.
That means you’d need to be aware of:
- Rules of civil procedure: These cover a multitude of matters such as pleadings, motions, service of court documents, time deadlines, defenses, trials, and judgments. Failing to understand these rules could cause unnecessary delays or even jeopardize your case.
- Discovery: A major portion of civil procedure includes discovery, the formal process of requesting and exchanging relevant documents and information between parties. You will need to not only send discovery requests, and respond appropriately to what you receive in return, but also answer or object to requests sent to you.
- Evidence: Not every piece of evidence can be admitted because there are strict rules designed to ensure it is reliable and relevant. If you don’t know the rules of evidence, either something valuable of yours might not get admitted or something from the opposing side that should be excluded will be allowed in.
You need to recover from your injuries
If you were hurt in a car or other type of accident, you may be suffering severe and debilitating consequences. Injuries may be physical (e.g. broken bones, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord damage) or mental and emotional (e.g. PTSD, anxiety, and depression).
Victims have enough to deal with during their rest and recovery. It is best to allow an attorney who can objectively and skillfully argue your case to do so.
Bad faith insurance tactics
Insurance companies generally do whatever they can to either underpay claims or deny them outright. Fair or not, when insurers know that the victim is unrepresented by counsel, this increases the chances of them trying to negotiate and settle claims in bad faith.
You may receive a settlement offer that looks good on paper but fails to account for the true value of your damages. Your injuries may be worse than initially believed and require extensive future treatments. If you sign the settlement papers, you won’t get to ask for more compensation in the future.
A skilled personal injury attorney is well aware of the various bad faith tactics that insurers use, including:
- Making settlement offers while the victim is unable to think clearly
- Asking for recorded statements that can be used against the victim
- Hiring private investigators to follow victims and record misleadingly selective footage
- Asking for general medical releases that expose your entire history and allow the insurer to try to claim you have pre-existing conditions
What Are the Advantages of Using a Personal Injury Lawyer?
Besides having someone in your corner who knows the law, who can advocate for you, and who can negotiate with otherwise unreasonable insurance companies, these are some benefits to hiring a personal injury lawyer:
Proving the at-fault party’s liability
The at-fault party, through their counsel and insurance company, may try to deny liability. Even worse, the defendant may attempt to blame you for the accident.
If the jury is convinced that you shared some percentage of responsibility for the accident, your damages may be reduced by that percentage. And if your degree of liability is determined to be higher than 50%, you can’t recover damages at all.
If you receive pushback like this from the defendant, our team can:
- Investigate the assertions made against you or in the defendant’s favor
- Look for and obtain additional evidence to prove the defendant’s liability
- Argue against any attempt to shift blame for the accident to you
- Demand the maximum damages allowed by law
Seeking compensation for serious injuries
The insurance company may try to downplay the extent of your physical injuries and thereby justify offering an unreasonably low settlement offer. The same is true concerning pain and suffering, emotional distress, and other injuries that fall under non-economic damages.
Insurers are notorious for trying to discredit these, for denying the consequences they have for the victim, and for not taking the victim seriously. We will review your medical records to determine the true nature of your medical conditions and rebut any attempt to minimize them.
Assigning a dollar amount to your damages
One of your personal injury attorney’s most critical tasks is to ascertain a fair dollar figure to compensate you for your damages. We start by reviewing all available damages with you, including economic (which are relatively easy to calculate), non-economic (which are more subjective), and, if available, punitive damages (which punish the at-fault party).
Then, we examine the evidence and acquire more as needed to substantiate the amount of damages demanded. With input from expert witnesses, we can help assign a dollar value to not only your past damages but also the ones you can reasonably be expected to incur later.
See Why It’s Worth Hiring a Trusted Personal Injury Lawyer
TSB Injury Law works hard to advocate for personal injury victims. It’s easy to work with us, as we take cases on a contingent fee basis. We don’t get paid unless you win. Schedule a free consultation to discuss your case. Reach out to us online or call (803) 220-0000 to get started.
