Step 1: Be Prepared
Okay, so case law is one of the most important parts of personal injury law. It’s basically a collection of cases that have been fought in court and won. Most attorneys use this to defend their clients because it has already been tried in court and won by someone else, so they can use it as a precedent for their client’s case. Every attorney has either used or seen these cases before, so you need to be prepared. You must know your stuff! This means you must research the cases thoroughly and be fully knowledgeable on them. Also make sure that you understand what the case says (and why). Having this information will help tremendously when trying to win your own personal injury lawsuit!
Step 2: Prepare Your Case File
This is probably my favorite part about personal injury law—the file preparation process. I love being able to get everything together for my own personal injury lawsuit, from all of the documents to pictures and police reports (if relevant), all put together neatly in a folder with labels showing who, what and where everything is from (see picture below). This makes things much easier when working on your file later on down the road after speaking with witnesses, etc. I have a lawyer friend that I talk to and he told me that no matter how hard you try, nothing is going to happen until you have everything put together neatly in your file. So do this! It really helps.
Step 3: Contact All Witnesses
Now comes the fun part—getting in touch with all of the witnesses for your personal injury case. This is where all of your research comes into play and it’s also time to reach out to any other attorneys or experts (if applicable) for help when filing paperwork down the road. The most important thing when trying to contact witnesses is do not let them know what you’re doing! This can make things very difficult if they think you’re on a mission against them because most people will deny any wrongdoing by their actions or words towards another person, even if it’s true. Just be straightforward with them and don’t let them know why you’re calling or what exactly this call/meeting is about; just ask if they would be willing to meet with you at a later date (and always set up a time and an exact location). In my experience, most people agree because they want nothing more than for their story (or whatever else) out there—that way everyone knows that this happened, even though it might have occurred years ago before anyone knew what was going on. This is why it’s so important to document your accident and injuries as soon as possible. You’ll thank me for this one later (I promise).
Step 4: Contact Your Own Witnesses
So first you contact these witnesses, but now it’s time to reach out to your own witnesses. This is where everything starts coming together in the case file. I think the best way of doing this is through handwritten notes/letters of what you’re trying to get across, even if they never actually see them (this also gives you a chance to write down all of the questions that you want them answering). If you don’t want them knowing that there are attorneys involved in this case yet, then it would be recommended not using a letter at all; just call and talk about what exactly happened with them when filing papers down the road. But either way, make sure that whoever contacts your witness knows exactly what he/she needs from him/her and keep track of everything! Also remember, things can go wrong here when talking with any witness—they can forget something or flat out lie about what happened—so have backup statements ready if they do forget anything or lie! It happens more than people think! So always have back up statements ready by making extra copies before hand and have another friend help you out by having them read off prepared statements while taking notes on anything else he/she says that’s relevant.
I hope that this was helpful to you. And as always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions about personal injury law! As I said earlier, I love talking about it and discussing what’s going on in the world of personal injury law.
Thanks for reading!
