You need a personal injury attorney on your side in order to secure full and fair compensation
Technically, everyone has the right to represent themselves in a personal injury case, or in any kind of legal matter. It’s called proceeding pro se.
At first, proceeding pro se might seem pretty attractive. After all, by representing yourself, you can reduce your attorney fees to zero, which will dramatically reduce your legal costs. However, these savings may very well come at a price: reduced compensation in your case.
Without an experienced attorney on your side, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to secure full and fair compensation for your injuries, no matter how strong the evidence in your case may be. Here’s why:
- You Don’t Know What You Need to Prove
- You Don’t Know the Deadlines
- You Don’t Know the Rules
- You Don’t Know How to Calculate Damages
- You Don’t Know How to Negotiate
- Your chances of winning at trial
- The value of settlements in past cases similar to yours
- The amount of insurance coverage or monetary assets the defendant has
Depending on the type of personal injury you have suffered, it may not be sufficient to simply produce documentation showing that you were hurt and assume the person or company who caused your accident is liable. You may also need to prove that you were not acting negligently, while the party who caused your accident was acting negligently or unreasonably. You will also need to consider the rules of evidence when trying to build your case for compensation.
Personal injury claims must be filed within the statute of limitations, which in California is generally two years from the time of the accident or from the time the injury was discovered. However, there are lots of exceptions to this. For example, if you were injured at a public swimming pool, you would have just six months to file a claim. Even after filing, there will be many other deadlines that must be met in order for your case to progress.
You cannot be successful in a personal injury case without understanding the rules of civil procedure and the rules of evidence, along with how to work within these rules to your own best advantage. For example, you probably don’t know that if you are suing a big company, they can try to remove your case from state to federal court. This would put you at a disadvantage, since federal courts tend to be friendlier to defendants and less likely to award large amounts of compensation to plaintiffs. You need to know how to fight back and prevent a removal.
You cannot get full and fair compensation if you don’t understand what types of damages you are entitled to, and what dollar figure would be reasonable to assign to each type of damages in your specific case.
Most personal injury cases are settled out of court in negotiations with the at-fault party and/or their insurance provider. Before you can negotiate successfully, you need to have a detailed understanding of factors like:
Get Top-Quality Representation from The Law Offices of Larry H. Parker
After over 40 years of experience in personal injury law, The Law Offices of Larry H. Parker knows everything you don’t know about how to make your claim a success. Hire us as your personal injury attorney on a contingency fee basis, and we will provide aggressive representation designed to maximize your compensation. We will not ask for any payment up front and if we do not win your case, you will not owe us a penny.
Get started today with a free initial consultation by calling 800-333-0000.
