Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Being Prepared For Personal Injury Lawsuits

By Areelitaha Joahlanski

One way to help your attorney be more effective with filing personal injury lawsuits is to have the documentation ready that your attorney will need to process your claim efficiently. Your attorney will have experience and expertise in the steps involved in filing an injury suit and what you can expect from your settlement. They will also be able to give you an idea of how long the settlement will take to be resolved.

When you injury first takes place, it will be a great idea to start collecting information relative to the injury. A lot of the information that you can collect right away will take longer to get if your attorney has to get it at a later date. If you have experienced a slip or fall at a business, take pictures as soon as possible after the incident. This can be important if there is a hole or slippery area that is repaired shortly after your fall. Having pictures of the area as it was when you fell will make it easier for the attorney to evaluate whether the business was negligent.

Copies of medical records can be very difficult to get after the fact. However, if you ask for copies of treatment notes while you are at the doctor's office or in the emergency room, they can print a copy for you before you leave. This will save a lot of time and your attorney will need copies of this information. When the attorney has to request the information several weeks after an incident, it can extend the time to resolve the case.

When the medical records are given to your attorney, they will be able to accurately evaluate and assess the extent of your injury and what types of treatment may be needed on a long term basis. This will also help them to evaluate what the settlement should include. Sometimes a settlement will only include short term treatment, however, when the attorney can start their negotiations with accurate medication information they are able to represent your interest more effectively.

Sometimes the attorney will have you go to a 3rd party physician to have your injuries validated. When you take the treatment records from your previous doctor's visits, it will help the physician when they are conducting the physical. In some cases, the 3rd party physician will find other issues that may have been missed by the previous physician.

When you must miss work due to the injury, it will be important to get a doctor's verification of injury for both your job and your personal records. If you are off for an extended period of time because of the injury, it will be important to have these verifications in order and give a copy to your attorney.

There are specific deadlines that must be met when a personal injury lawsuit is being processed. It will be important that you are at each meeting that your attorney asks you to attend. When a meeting or deposition is missed it can extend the length of time before the suit is resolved by several months. Working with your attorney and making sure that you are following their advice and taking all the steps necessary will help you to resolve personal injury lawsuits much more quickly.

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