When you’re facing a personal injury case and you’re working with an attorney to win your case, you can’t always rely 100% on your personal injury lawyer to manage everything for you. In fact, there are ways that you can and should step in to assist your lawyer with winning your case.
For example, you were the one in the accident; not your attorney. So while they’re the expert and understand all of the logistics and legalese behind a personal injury case, they still need you there to corroborate your story.
Here are a few things that you can do to help your attorney with your case.
1. Be open and honest.
Your attorney cannot help you if you get caught in a lie. You also do not want your lawyer to be caught by surprise if some details of the accident come up in court and you hadn’t previously shared them.
Don’t be ashamed of anything that happened. Your attorney is there to help you no matter what. Be sure to tell the whole story about your accident so that they can have your back.
2. Make a statement.
But don’t do this until you have hired an attorney and they are present. You don’t want to say anything to the person who caused your accident, your insurance companies, or any other third parties until you have spoken with an attorney.
You can help by making a statement to your attorney, though—written and/or spoken—with full details about what happened.
3. Stay organized.
If you have any documents pertaining to your case, be sure to keep them as organized as possible. Your lawyer is working with a number of clients, and if you hand over stacks of papers or email over a ton of files with seemingly no rhyme or reason, it’s going to take awhile for your lawyer to go through them.
Not only is this frustrating and time consuming for your lawyer, but it’s expensive for you because you’re paying for the time they have to spend organizing everything. Do both of you a favor and keep everything organized in folders with file names or tabs indicating what each document is.
4. Keep them in the loop.
Your lawyer needs to be made aware of any conversation you have pertaining to your injury with police officers, insurance companies, etc. Be sure to keep your lawyer informed of any changes in your situation so that they can help you to the best of their abilities.
If you have any new evidence, or if the person who was at fault in the accident tries to contact you, be sure that your attorney is aware.
Yes, you’re paying your personal injury attorney the big bucks to help win your case for you—but there are still a few things that they need your help with. If you’re able to take care of these 4 tasks, you’re going to make your lawyer’s job so much easier.
