There are four main elements to having a valid personal injury case against someone.
1. Did you suffer a physical injury to your body?
2. Was someone other than you wrongly at fault for your injury?
3. Can you medically prove your injury was caused by this accident and was not a pre-existing condition?
4. Can you prove your damages: medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, mental anguish, etc?
When you make a claim for damages for a physical bodily injury you legally have the burden to prove each of these four elements (and their subparts) in order to recover. Your opposition does not have to prove anything but needs only to claim that you failed to prove your case in one of these areas. This is the reason you need legal representation for your claim; to quickly gather and preserve evidence to prove your case.
The insurance company for the person that hurt you is highly motivated to settle quickly with you before you know when or whether you will fully recover and before you hire a lawyer to learn all your rights. The insurance company will try to take a recorded statement from you quickly so it can use your own words against you when valuing your claim. In total contradiction of all the insurance companies “warm and fuzzy” commercials about helping you, they really want to avoid paying your claim.
Here are some facts that you may not know:
1. Except under narrow exceptions, to have a claim your body must have been “impacted” in some fashion.
2. Near misses generally do not create valid claims.
3. If your accident was your own fault because of your own misperceptions there is no claim.
4. If you make a misstep in your recorded statement they will claim you admitted fault for your injuries and deny your claim or offer you less than you deserve.
5. If you give the insurance company the impression that you recognized the danger but voluntarily chose to encounter it then you do not have a claim.
6. If you seem to indicate that your own behavior significantly contributed to you getting injured then the adjuster will claim you are more at fault for your injuries than their insured and either deny your claim or make a low-ball offer.
These are all targeted areas where an insurance adjuster in a recorded statement will try to catch you saying something against your own interest. You may have to give a taped statement at some point but you need legal representation to prepare you for that statement and to be present during that statement.
You can recover damages for the aggravation of an existing condition but you will not be able to recover for your pre-existing condition such as previous chronic back or neck pain, prior limitations of motion, or previous psychological conditions such as depression.
However, you can recover for the permanent increase in any of these conditions. Proving aggravation claims can be medically challenging. This is why you need to hire a lawyer now; before bad things happen to your case or to prevent any more bad things from happening in your case.
The reason you need Garrison Law Firm is that each of our attorneys and support staff have many years of experience in the negotiation of personal injury claims and how to manage all these issues. Whether it’s initial evidence collection, medical records review, the selection of necessary experts, comprehensive valuation of injuries, discovery procedures in litigation, or trial of a case, at Garrison Law Firm you know your team will have the necessary education and experience in all these areas.
Failure to preserve evidence can be the reason why no lawyer will take your personal injury case so act now and contact Garrison Law Firm to discuss how to preserve and protect your legal rights to ensure compensation for all your injuries.
