3 Ways You Can Help Strengthen Your Personal Injury Claim

Even if your attorney has built a very strong personal injury case, the unfortunate truth is that there’s no way to guarantee you’ll be awarded compensation. The responsibility for gathering evidence and crafting a clear and strong argument to support your case lies with your attorney — not you. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t play an active role in maximizing your chances of receiving a fair settlement. Here’s a look at three ways you can help strengthen your personal injury claim.

Your personal injury lawyer will handle the majority when building your case. However, when you know what steps to take following your injury, you can play a major role in securing your own compensation.

1. Know What to Do Right After an Accident

Whether you’ve just been hurt in a car accident, a slip and fall incident, or another situation, you should never admit fault. Most of the time, when a personal injury attorney files a lawsuit on your behalf, they aren’t dealing directly with the party responsible for your accident — they’re dealing with that party’s insurance company. Insurance companies tend to try to avoid paying out claims, and they will often take anything you say that could be construed as an admission and use it against you.

After any kind of injury, you also should seek medical care as soon as you can. If you wait until later, the other side is likely to argue one of the following:

• You didn’t need treatment right away, so your injuries aren’t as serious as you claim.
• You actually suffered your injuries in the time between your accident and when you sought medical care.

Getting immediate medical care isn’t only important for building a personal injury case — it also matters for your own physical safety. The extreme adrenaline rush that often comes with serious accidents may make it impossible to accurately determine whether you’ve been injured or not. Additionally, some serious injuries, including spinal injuries, may initially show mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.

2. Keep as Much Evidence as Possible

Complete, Accurate Records Make a Difference

Just as it does in criminal cases, evidence plays a key role in shaping the outcome of civil cases. If a personal injury attorney takes your case, they will start gathering evidence as soon as possible. You can help by keeping thorough, organized records of the following:

All Costs Associated With the Injury

Medical bills are a major financial cost in injury cases, but they aren’t the only expenses you should keep track of. Make sure to keep records and receipts of these costs as well:

• Transportation costs
• Income lost while you were healing
• Cost to modify your home to accommodate your disability
• Cost to hire a home health aide if needed
• Cost of physical and occupational therapy
• Cost of childcare.

It’s easy to lose track of these receipts and records if you aren’t careful. You might find that keeping hard copies in a binder or uploading files to a computer helps keep things organized. If at all possible, it’s wise to store records in more than one place. For instance, you might keep hard copies in a designated folder but also have everything saved on a computer.

If you’ve been injured because another person or organization acted negligently, you need an experienced personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. Call Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law now at (713) 973-8888 for your free and confidential consultation today.

Your Healing Process/The Injury’s Impact on Your Life

The amount of compensation you receive depends, in part, on how much of an impact your injury has on your day-to-day life. It’s wise to keep a daily journal of your healing process, pain levels, and how your injury interferes with your daily life. This also creates a clear timeline. Many people mistakenly believe they’ll remember every detail, but as time goes on, it can be a challenge to keep track of what happened and when. Even jotting down a few notes each day can prove to be extremely helpful.

3. Talk to an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer as Soon as Possible

In Texas, the statute of limitations on a personal injury case is generally two years. (*Always speak directly to an attorney to learn the exact deadlines that apply to your potential claims.) This means that you have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. Some people learn about the statute of limitations and decide that they can afford to wait before talking to a personal injury lawyer. However, if you want to maximize your chances of success, you need to speak to a personal injury lawyer as soon as you can. This is important for a few reasons:

Timing Matters for Evidence Collection

As soon as a personal injury attorney takes your case, they will start gathering evidence to support it. That evidence often includes CCTV, traffic camera, or dashcam footage of the incident. In general, camera footage isn’t saved forever — most security cameras will overwrite it after a period of time.

If you reach out to a personal injury attorney immediately after your accident, your lawyer will have the best possible chance of gathering all available evidence. If you wait several months or even longer to set up a consultation with an attorney, it’s still possible to win your case. However, your attorneys may have a harder time finding supporting evidence, and that may make it more difficult to prove that the defendant was responsible for your injuries.

Building a Strong Case Takes Time

The more detail your legal team can include in your personal injury case, the greater your chances of winning. Attorneys can’t put together a personal injury case overnight — many cases require them to locate police reports, take witness statements, find footage of the incident, and interview medical professionals. Gathering evidence is only part of the process. If they want to convince an insurance company, judge, or jury that the defendant is obligated to pay you compensation, they must also structure that evidence into a cohesive storyline.

Even a single case can be time-consuming, and personal injury firms are often working more than one case at a time. When you contact an attorney soon after your injury happens, you’re ensuring your attorney will have all the time they need to craft a strong, evidence-supported argument.

The Sooner You Start, the Sooner You May Receive Compensation

As you may already have discovered, major injuries have the ability to plunge you into financial uncertainty. Even if you have substantial savings when the accident occurs, the combination of high medical bills and the inability to work can quickly erode those savings. Some personal injury cases take longer than others, but by setting up a consultation with a lawyer as soon as possible, you increase your chances of receiving compensation sooner rather than later.

Have You Been Injured?

Let Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law Help You

Some injuries are genuine accidents. However, more often than not, major injuries are a direct result of someone’s negligent conduct. If you’ve been harmed by someone’s negligence, we believe the responsible party should be held accountable. The right legal representation makes a difference in the outcome of your case, and the Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law team has the experience needed to deliver the strong advocacy you deserve.

If you want your personal injury case to be as strong as possible, you need an experienced personal injury attorney. Call Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law now at (713) 973-8888 or toll-free 1 (800) 444-5000 for a free and confidential consultation.