Personal injury cases, unlike some other kinds of legal cases, often make news. Between cases that make the news and lawyers that advertise in the media, the general public learns of or hears of a decent amount of personal injury information.
But with all of that publicity, can come mistruths and beliefs that can be misleading if not altogether false. Here are some of the most common things that people believe about personal injury law, but which are, in fact, for the most part false.
Everybody gets paid
It seems that everybody has a story about a neighbor who got into a small accident, and magically, ended up with a verdict of 7 figures, and today, they are walking around completely healthy.
Who knows where these stories come from—probably passed down falsely, like the old game of telephone.
But the fact is that many personal injury cases don’t yield a lot of compensation, and injury cases are not easy to win—in fact, big pocket insurance companies and defendants fight these kinds of cases as hard as they can. And they do not toss money at you just because you make a claim or file a lawsuit.
The jury will feel bad for you
Many people think they will walk in, and the jury will immediately feel bad for you—that sympathy, the logic goes, will translate into a big verdict. But the truth is quite different; most juries go into cases with an open mind, and many may have hidden underlying opinions that aren’t favorable to victims. And if you want the jury’s sympathy–you need to earn it by proving your injuries and hardships.
You can win a jury over and turn them to your side—but it’s not easy, and it’s not guaranteed.
You don’t need a lawyer
Because insurance companies and defendants pay everybody, why get a lawyer? At least, that’s the (false) thinking.
In fact, personal injury cases are hard, and defendants will use their expertise and experience, to mislead you, and to assert defenses that, on your own, you won’t know how to counter.
Even aside from that, is the fact that you have a lot to navigate yourself if you don’t get an attorney. How will you pay your medical bills, handle the attorneys related to fixing your car, or handle all those letters from the multiple insurance companies that may be involved? That’s just not something you want to be dealing with, on top of the stress of being injured.
You don’t get compensation if you do something wrong
It’s easy, and sometimes even admirable, to take personal responsibility for your actions. But do not think that you cannot get compensation from a negligent defendant, just because you could have or should have done something different or because of your own actions.
Nobody is perfect and the law does allow people who may have contributed to their own accident, to get compensation.
