Prepared For Personal Injury Trial

If you have filed a personal injury claim but failed to settle, you may need to proceed with a lawsuit. This basically means that you will need to go through the litigation process in open court. This article and a subsequent one will discuss what you need to be prepared for before during and after trial.

Many have said that the terms trial and ordeal go together. This is because personal injury litigation and trials can be an ordeal. However, with some preparation both mentally and physically, it may be easier to go through.

Prepared for Trial

Some important things to know and prepare for include the following;

• Privacy goes out the window – filing any lawsuit means you lose some of your privacy. Once you file a lawsuit the defense attorney has the legal right to ask many intrusive questions. Further, the defense can ask you to produce many different types of documents for personal, financial, medical, employment, etc. history. This can be as far back into the past as they want. During a deposition you can be asked by the defense details about every job you ever held in your life. Or every injury you had, doctor you have seen, lawsuit or worker’s compensation you filed for, etc. They can even demand your tax returns and medical records. The truth is this is very hostile, intrusive and annoying. Most courts will allow the defense to obtain such information.
• Confrontations – defense attorneys have been known to go hard when asking questions in a bid to make you lose your cool. This is often because juries do not, often, like angry plaintiffs; even for a legitimate reason.
• Communication is a must – be sure to ask your attorney about anything you do not understand. And be sure to ask the questions sooner than later. Understanding what is going on helps you be better prepared to deal with things.

Contact an experienced personal injury attorney for more information on the litigation process.