The process of filing a personal injury claim can be complex. It involves gathering evidence, identifying all potentially liable parties and calculating your damages.
An experienced lawyer can increase the settlement value of your case by assessing your medical expenses, re-evaluating the extent of your injuries, and presenting all of the ways your accident has impacted your life.
Medical Treatment
Medical expenses and future income losses are often the largest part of a personal injury claim. Documenting all your medical treatments, invoices and receipts is critical to maximizing your settlement amount.
Getting checked out by a physician after any accident is important, even if you don’t feel that you are injured. Some injuries, such as whiplash or traumatic brain injury (TBI), may not have immediate symptoms and could result in serious long-term damage.
An experienced injury attorney in Carrollton ga can help you understand the value of your case by providing an accurate picture of all your damages. This includes ongoing costs like follow-up doctor’s appointments, physical therapy, loss of quality of life and lost enjoyment of life, and emotional distress and mental anguish. An attorney can also help you place a value on future damages such as decreased earning potential or permanent disability.
Documentation
Documentation is essential to ensuring that you are fully compensated for all your losses. For specific damages, like medical expenses and lost income, it’s easy to calculate how much you’ve suffered using invoices, pay stubs, receipts, and other evidence of financial losses. But for emotional or general damages, such as pain and suffering or the cost of future treatment, it’s harder to determine how much you deserve.
That’s why many people end up leaving money on the table when they accept a quick and small settlement from an insurance company. An experienced attorney can help you understand how to make a strong case for your long-term damages and get the compensation you deserve. A good attorney can even negotiate with the insurance companies to increase your odds of a fair offer.
Expert Witnesses
Using expert witnesses in your case can help the jury better understand your injuries and how they impact your life. This type of testimony can significantly increase your settlement value.
An expert witness is someone with specialized skill sets who can provide an opinion that helps the jury make sense of the factual evidence in a case. Federal Rules of Evidence 702 lists specific qualifications that experts must meet to be admissible in a court of law.
Expert witnesses are commonly used in both criminal and civil cases. For example, forensic scientists and forensic psychologists are common in criminal cases while forensic accountants, employment consultants or senior physicians are frequently used in civil cases. All experts must prepare a report and share it with all parties before they can testify at trial. This enables other parties to effectively cross-examine them.
Time Limits
Depending on the type of accident, there are different laws that govern time limits. For example, personal injury cases caused by negligence are generally governed by a three year statute of limitations. This means that the clock starts running from the date of the accident. However, if the injured party was a minor or had a mental disability, they may be entitled to an extension.
As time passes, evidence becomes more difficult to find, eyewitnesses forget important details, and documentation can be lost. These mistakes can potentially derail a case before it begins.
An injury attorney can make sure that the insurance company does not rush the settlement process and undervalue your injuries and damages. They can also represent you in court if necessary to maximize your compensation.
Social Media
Many people don’t realize that what they post on social media can be used against them in court. This is why it’s important to avoid posting any information about your accident or injury on your social media accounts until your case has been settled. Insurance adjusters may scour your social media to find evidence that could be used to reduce your settlement.
If you claim to have devastating injuries, but your social media pages tell a different story, it can undermine your entire case. Even innocent posts, such as a video of you doing the latest TikTok challenge, can be misinterpreted and used to dispute your injury claims.
A skilled accident attorney can help you preserve and protect the evidence that speaks to your noneconomic damages. Contact us today to arrange a zero-cost consultation.
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