If you decide you’re going to bring a personal injury case against a person or business, that means you’re alleging they harmed you. Presumably, you feel you can prove this. You’ll need a lawyer who knows this area of the law and who can help you, though.
You should understand how a skilled personal injury lawyer can increase your compensation, but that’s just one way you can potentially get more money out of your lawsuit. We’ll discuss additional ways in the following article.
Can You Produce Photos or Video of the Accident or Incident?
Most people who file personal injury lawsuits would agree that finding the right lawyer or law firm matters a great deal. If you can locate a lawyer or firm with lots of experience handling these sorts of cases, they’ll usually know every possible winning strategy that might get you more money in damages.
You must turn to your lawyer’s investigator or investigative team during the lead up to the trial. During the trial’s discovery phase, it’s helpful to have the investigator look for as much evidence as possible that they can use to put pressure on the defendant. If they can find enough evidence, that might make the defendant offer a settlement.
To that end, your lawyer’s investigator will want to try to locate any photos or video of the accident or incident that hurt you. Such photos or video won’t exist every time. It depends on how you allege the defendant injured you or made you ill.
For instance, if you’re suing a doctor for medical malpractice because they operated on the wrong body part by accident, the investigator probably can’t uncover any photos or video of that. Maybe if you’re suing another driver because they ran into your car while drunk, though, the investigator might uncover traffic camera footage that shows it.
Perhaps they’ll find a video or some pictures of the crash on social media if a passerby took some with their smartphone at the scene. So many people have camera phones these days that this might happen.
A jury will more likely respond to visual stimuli like pictures and videos. They can sometimes get you bigger settlement amounts or a larger amount from the jury if the case ever gets that far.
Do You Have Any Eyewitnesses?
If your lawyer’s investigator finds any eyewitnesses who saw the incident or accident who they can put on the witness stand during your trial, that can help you to get more money as well. Eyewitnesses, much like pictures or videos of the crash, can help to create a more vivid picture of what happened.
If they can describe in detail what the defendant did or failed to do, and that paints you in a sympathetic light, then the jury will more likely find in your favor. That’s assuming that the defendant doesn’t feel that they’re losing ground. If they do, then they might halt the proceedings to offer you a settlement.
Can You Demonstrate the Defendant Acted Negligently?
You might also get more money out of your lawsuit if you can prove that the defendant acted negligently. Consider the scenario we mentioned earlier, where you’re suing a surgeon because they operated on the wrong body part. That sounds unlikely, but these cases happen more than you might imagine.
If you can demonstrate that the surgeon acted negligently, then you will probably get more money out of the deal. In that scenario, it’s absolutely possible that you might prove that.
In the medical profession, you’re due something called the standard of care. It means you can expect that you will receive care of a sort that’s common or expected in the medical profession. If the surgeon didn’t give you that, and you can prove it or establish it conclusively, then you should win your case.
Proving negligence means you’ve established the defendant acted inappropriately given the circumstances. They should have to pay for that financially, and a jury will likely feel the same way.
Did the Injury or Illness Cause Permanent Damage?
You should also get more money from a lawsuit if you sustained a permanent injury or you’ve now got a medical condition that will never completely go away. In other words, you should get more cash if you won’t ever completely heal and get back to your former life.
Maybe you’ll get over the injury or illness to a certain degree, but you will still bear the scars from what happened for the rest of your life. Perhaps you now can no longer do certain things that you once could.
Maybe, because of the injury or illness, you can now no longer have a physical relationship with your spouse or partner. Perhaps you can’t play catch with your kids or play in a game of pickup football in the park with your friends.
The injury or illness permanently changed your day-to-day existence. If you can establish that, you should get more money than if you completely recovered from what happened.
Can You Get Up in Front of a Jury and Make Yourself Seem Sympathetic?
You might also get more money out of your lawsuit if you can get up in front of the jury and make yourself look sympathetic in their eyes. That doesn’t involve embellishing what happened to you or anything like that.
Instead, you should deliver a victim impact statement that’s truthful, direct, and that holds nothing back. You should tell the jury how your life looked before the injury or illness and what it looks like now.
Maybe, because of your illness or injury, you don’t enjoy your life like you once did. Perhaps you have to modify many aspects of how you live, and you miss your old routine. If you can connect with the jury on an emotional level, and there’s no doubt the defendant caused your woes, you should get a suitable amount of money to balance justice’s scales.
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