Starting any new career is overwhelming.
However, this becomes more severe as we look into legal careers, especially for lawyers.
You might be holding your client’s fate in your hand.
Whether they are innocent or guilty, this presents a high-stress situation.
Personal injury cases are no exception.
They involve three main stress-inducing factors: complex legal processes, emotional clients, and high-stakes litigation.
New lawyers will likely get caught up in their nerves and make mistakes.
Let’s look into three of these and learn how to avoid them.
1. Overlooking the Importance of Medical Records
Medical records play a crucial role in any personal injury case.
They form the foundation of the case and give proof of neglect.
Medical documentation will provide clear-cut evidence of your client’s injury, treatment, and severity.
Here, lawyers can make the following mistakes:
- Not thoroughly requesting or reviewing all medical records
- Assuming the client has already provided everything
- Failing to follow up on medical records
- Rely heavily on the client’s memory only
Making these errors will result in you overlooking the importance of specific documents, like diagnostic reports or specialist opinions.
Similarly, you cannot calculate the economic and non-economic losses.
This can severely undermine your case.
You can avoid this pitfall by being thorough and diligent.
Request all medical records, including treatment histories, diagnostic tests, physician notes, prognoses, and medical bills.
This way, you will not fall short of any proof.
Consequently, you can build a strong case.
2. Underestimating the Complexity of Damage Calculations
In personal injury law, economic damages are mainly easy to calculate.
You just have to add up some bills and receipts.
The problem arises with non-economic ones.
These include emotional distress, pain, suffering, or loss of quality of life.
Because it’s hard to calculate them, new lawyers might solely focus on economic damages.
This can happen because of one of these reasons:
Not having experience or resources to assess non-economic damages properly
Focusing on short-term medical records and neglecting the long-term impact of the injury in terms of psychological distress or ongoing pain
Doing this takes a lot of depth and dimension from the case.
Non-economic losses showcase the broader impact of the injury on your client’s life.
Neglecting this might cause your clients to get much less than they should.
To avoid this, you must educate yourself on evaluating non-economic losses.
Consult medical doctors, mental health professionals, and vocational experts.
You can also use tools like damage calculators and refer to precedent cases.
This way, you can fully picture your client’s losses and ensure they get fair compensation.
3. Not Understanding the Role of Insurance Companies
Insurance companies work for profit.
In a personal injury case, they will have one of these two reactions:
- Minimizing payouts
- Denying claims
Let’s say an insurance company is not denying claims.
In that case, they will offer your client a settlement.
The amount might seem appealing at first, and as a new lawyer, you may also face pressure from insurers.
Understandably, you will want to finish the case as soon as possible.
You may be tempted to accept the offer.
However, it will be much less than what your client deserves.
The settlement offer will be low and will not compensate your client fairly.
It will not account for your client’s injuries and medical needs, especially in the long run.
Settling now will result in your client getting less and ultimately losing their trust in you.
This might cause you to lose clients and lead to reputation issues.
To avoid this pitfall, you must learn the tactics that insurers use.
Here are some of them:
- Disputing liability: They will deny responsibility for the accident.
- Delaying investigations: They will respond to calls very late. They might also ask for unnecessary documentation.
- Social media monitoring: They will monitor your client’s media profiles to look for anything to use against them and weaken their claim.
Know that what you can say can be used against you.
You may outsmart insurers by keeping records of everything.
Thoroughly research the losses, too.
Remember, don’t take the first offer.
You must prepare yourself for some aggressive negotiations here.
Simple Oversights
Sometimes, new lawyers get too caught up in avoiding the abovementioned errors and overlook simple facts.
They might not conduct a thorough investigation from the start, for instance.
This way, they might miss valuable witnesses and evidence.
Similarly, they might misunderstand or not look into the statute of limitations.
The court may dismiss the case even if you have all the evidence.
These errors are easily avoidable.
Conduct a comprehensive investigation early in the case to build a strong foundation.
Similarly, be aware of the statute of limitations in your jurisdiction.
It’s essential to know how much time you will have and act accordingly.
Endnote
All new lawyers want to provide the best representation for their clients.
You can achieve this by being diligent and careful.
Remember to stay calm and rational.
Use specific strategies in medical records, damage calculations, and dealing with insurance companies.
However, keep your wits about you to avoid common mistakes.
Read the points above to set yourself up for success in the field!
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