What does a Personal Injury Lawyer Do?

If you’ve been injured and have been considering filing a personal injury suit, there’s a good chance that you’ve had a lot of questions about it. How does one go about filing a lawsuit, do you need a lawyer or not, how much money should you ask for, is it even worth it? These are all incredibly common questions and it only makes sense that you’d be having them. That being said, if you’re considering filing a personal injury suit, it’s a good idea to get a personal injury lawyer. These lawyers do a lot more than you might realize. 

There are a lot of good reasons why a lawyer that specializes in personal injury law would be a good idea, and we’ll be covering some of the things that they do to help you with your case. That being said, trying to sue someone for a personal injury without a lawyer is typically a bad idea. The phrase “bringing a knife to a gunfight” is apt for the situation, especially if you plan on suing a corporation over an injury that was the result of their neglectful behaviors or flat-out unsafe business practices. 

Handle Correspondance for You

If you’ve never sued someone before you might be surprised by the sheer amount of correspondence that has to be done between the plaintiff and defendant. There are whole processes that need to be done to make a court case happen, and for the time leading up to the court case, the defendant or their lawyers are pretty much going to be the people that you talk to the most outside of anyone you live with and potentially your relatives. Leading up to a court case is seriously an involved process that takes a lot of conversations between yourself and the other side. 

There is one particularly grueling part of any court case that is a process called discovery. You see, in any trial, both sides have to have access to the same evidence and both sides get ample time to review the evidence. The process of exchanging evidence is called “discovery” and it can get a lot more complicated than you might think. This process exists to prevent the use of “bombshell evidence” that is brought to light during the trial. Bombshell evidence is good for T.V. but not so good for actually trying to serve justice. 

During this process, your lawyer will handle all of the correspondence between yourself, the defendant, and the judge. There are a lot of tricks that people use during this part of the process to try and make things harder for the opposite side. One of the most commonly used tactics is to give your opponent stacks and stacks of paperwork. By giving their opposition a mountain of paperwork that may or may not be related to the case, one hopes that their opponent won’t be able to find the actual evidence. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. 

When that happens, it’s easy enough to go to the judge and tell them that the number of documents that they received is entirely unreasonable, and the judge can tell the other side to give only the most pertinent evidence for the case. Lawyers are used to having to do this and will fight tooth and nail to make sure that your case is getting fair treatment from both the court and the other side. Any lawyer you hire has probably seen all sorts of dirty tricks and they know exactly how to handle them right as they pop up. 

You, as someone who is recovering from an injury, probably don’t have the time and energy to deal with all of that. Any lawyer you hire is taking on the job to do this, which means that it’s literally their job to make sure that your case is being handled to the best of their ability. Even if there is a mountain of paperwork that takes a whole Uhaul truck to transport, when you have a lawyer handling your case you’ll never even have to glance at anything unless your lawyer feels that it’s important for you to see it. 

Reading and Filing Paperwork on Your Behalf

Just like there’s a lot of correspondence with any court case, there’s a lot of paperwork and documents that need to be read and filed to keep the court case going. Some of that paperwork is easy, just sign a few documents and hand them to the judge. Other documents aren’t quite that easy and can be pages on pages of reading that you have to do and then sign to agree to. It’s possible that the defense team will even send you some paperwork and, keep in mind, some lawyers are actually very underhanded. 

Your lawyer will read everything that is sent to you on your behalf, and if you give them power of attorney they’ll be able to sign paperwork for you as well. Lawyers are very good at reading contracts and documents before signing them because contracts and documents are legally binding, making it very important to read what you’re signing. If the defense team gave you a piece of paper to sign saying that it was something confirming that you’re suing them and you didn’t read it before signing it, you could very well be giving up your right to sue them. 

A big part of a lawyer’s job is reading things that are really complicated to understand. Good lawyers know exactly what they’re looking at and can easily read legalese and see the small print in contracts. These skills are exactly what you need when you’re getting your case ready to take to court. Law proceedings are incredibly complicated and take a lot of preparation. All of this can be very stressful, and stress isn’t great for people that are trying to recover from any sort of injury. In fact, studies show that excessive stress can actually make you heal more slowly.

Stand Up For You in Court

Here is the real meat of what your lawyer is going to do for you. Court cases are incredibly hard. Judges can be lenient, but judges can also be strict. Which kind of judge you get really depends on your luck and what kind of day they’re having. Remember, judges are just people that are doing their jobs. We all have good days at work and we all have bad days at work, and you could be approaching the judge after they’ve had a very bad day. 

Judges see all sorts of cases in their courts. Lawsuits come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, and there are a lot of people that have a lot of reasons to sue other people. Someone has to preside over these cases, and that job falls onto our judges. Judges don’t really want you to show how the case is affecting you emotionally, all they want are the facts. Of course, your emotions on the matter can have an impact on the case, but being able to calmly and confidently give your case means that the judge will be able to hear the facts and make their ruling based on that. 

When you try to represent yourself you’re oftentimes too close to the incident to be able to approach the situation calmly. Let’s say that you were at a fast food place and had a slip-fall in their bathroom because they forgot to put up any sort of a wet floor sign and you ended up breaking your arm in the process. You’re probably at least a little irritated because of this, and it can be very easy for those emotions to become visible to anyone that’s watching. 

The judge wants the facts and they want to hear them from someone who is able to give them calmly. If you’re upset about your broken arm, there’s a good chance that you could get emotional about the matter. When you get emotional, it’s harder to be objective and form arguments using only the facts. If the defense team has lawyers they can also use your emotions against you. Sun Tzu said “All warfare is based on deception… If angry, irritate him.” and a court case is very much a type of war in a way. Having a lawyer to help you with your case means that you have someone that is detached from the situation that will have a much easier time with giving just the facts in a cool and collected tone. 

Get Help With Your Personal Injury Suit

Getting injured sucks. There is no part of it that is pleasant, including any court cases that result because of it. If you find yourself needing to go to court, finding good representation can mean the difference between getting a great payout and not getting a payout at all. Abraham Lincoln once said, “if a man is to represent himself in court, he has a fool for a client” and many attorneys feel very strongly about this. Getting the help you need can make the entire court case go a lot more smoothly for everyone involved.