What Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Handle?

Depending on what state you live in, and the circumstances that surround the situation a personal injury lawyer can handle a plethora of accidental injury scenarios. In simple terms, an accident injury lawyer can assist a person that has been hurt due to the negligence of others. Some cases are easy, open and shut circumstances where the wrongdoing is clearly visible, while other cases need a bit more work to uncover the true facts of the situation. In any event, a personal injury lawyer will handle the hard parts of the job in order to get the highest possible compensation for the case.

Collecting Pertinent Information

When it comes to fighting a legal case in the court of law, information is key. In addition to the information there has to be a certain amount of evidence to prove that the information is accurate. For example, if a person is injured in an automobile accident where the person that caused the injury ran a stop sign, or a red light the more information that proves this to be a fact, the better the case will be.

Finding eye witnesses, getting statements, looking for video footage and being able to scrape even the tiniest pieces of evidence that support the case is part of what the lawyer will do. Although, in most cases, the lawyer will hire an investigator – or an investigating agency to go over the details of the accident with a fine toothed comb.

Making a List of All Costs

The end goal of a court case regarding an injury is for the lawyer that is representing the injured to obtain as much compensation as possible for the injured person. One of the key elements is to find each and every cost that occurs because of the accident from the beginning to the end.

For example, if the injured person goes to the emergency room and gets pain medication, surgery, stitches, and so on there will be a cost for each item. The trip to the emergency room via ambulance, the costs of dressing wounds or tending to broken limbs, each pill or CC of medication that the injured person gets. All of it. Everything adds up. From the moment the emergency crews are called in until the injured person is completely out of the care of the hospital all of the costs add up.

In addition to the costs of the medical care, other costs will accumulate as well such as:

• Loss of wages
• Damaged property
• Pain and suffering
• Miscellaneous costs

The attorney will want to take great care to admonish the injured person from all costs by finding the total costs and factoring them all into the compensation that the case will look for at the end.

Defending the Injured

Going into a courtroom can be extremely daunting and confusing. One of the biggest reasons that court can be so brutal is that the people that you are up against in the case do not want to pay any more money than they deem necessary. In most cases, the lawyer will be going up against insurance companies that want to keep their money. These insurance companies will want to put as much blame on the injured as they can in order to be less responsible for the money owed.

The injury attorney will be a defender against these insurance companies by being able to provide the court with the facts that we talked about earlier. However, facts alone will most likely not be enough to win the case. Your injury attorney will have the skill and the courtroom savvy to present the facts in a way that will be most beneficial for the case. 

The injury lawyer will know when to speak up, and when to be silent. They will also know what questions to ask, and when to ask them.

It is crucial to have an experienced professional on your side when going through any court procedure. The party that you will go up against will be smart, intuitive, and savvy as well. They want to keep their money, but your lawyer will want to get you more money.

Researching and Implementing Strategies

Although all lawyers, in order to practice law, have to go through a strenuous amount of learning and educational endeavors they also have to pass a nearly impossible test known as the Bar Exam. This education and testing proves that they are smart enough and able to practice law in accordance with the strict policies of the court system.

Even though lawyers are extremely smart and witty, they don’t know everything. With each case that they fight there will be an abundance of variables that can change from one minute to the next. 

For example, if you are driving over the speed limit and have to abruptly stop your vehicle to avoid a rear end collision with the car ahead of you and stop within a couple inches of the vehicle, but get rear ended and are forced into the car you just avoided…is it your fault?

The answer to this could vary depending on all of the evidence that is brought forth to the court. If there is no way to prove that you were driving over the speed limit, why would there be a reason to mention it? Did your speed have anything to do with the car that hit you from behind? These are all factors that will have to be considered during the process.

A smart lawyer will do research on the laws that govern the area that the accident occured in and find information that will be beneficial to the case.

Filling Out and Filing Paperwork

Each and every court case that happens has to have an exuberant amount of paperwork filled out and documented in order for it all to be official. Since all of the events that take place in the court of law are considered public information, each step of the way requires documentation and notes.

For every court date that happens, and motion that is filed, the lawyer is the one that is in charge of keeping the documentation up to date, and accurate.

Some motions that are filed are so in depth and detailed that they are made up of hundreds of pages. Other motions are simple and require less. In any event, an attorney will know what documents need to be filled out, and what information is needed to be included on the document.

The types of documents and the way that they need to be filed into the court will all vary, and have different names or numbers. The whole documentation filing, reviewing, and supplementing can be very confusing and burdensome. It is always best to have somebody that knows what they are doing to file the motions and make sure that they are done correctly. In the event of error, or omissions of facts the whole case will be in jeopardy or can even be deemed a mistrial.

Conclusion

The responsibility of the accident injury attorney is to look out for their client in all types of situations. In addition to showing up and defending the injured person through the court system, the lawyer will also be able to support, educate, and assist the client throughout the entire process.