How to come prepared to meet with your personal injury attorney

Personal injury cases are all about the evidence. While your attorney is working on your case he or she is gathering the evidence it will take to prove your damages and handle any roadblocks that may arise. In order to gather that evidence the attorney must have some information from you, the client. Clients often come to the office and aren’t ready to answer the questions the attorney asks. Hopefully, this will help you anticipate the information your attorney will ask for at the meeting and make the entire process go smoothly.

Basics

When you come to a new client meeting there are some basics that the attorney will need to know. First is the date of the incident. If your attorney doesn’t know the date of the incident he or she can’t order the police report or incident report. This makes it difficult to establish a claim with the appropriate insurance company. While the attorney usually can find this information, your case will run faster and smoother if you have it at the new client meeting. The next is your contact information like name, social security number, addresses, and telephone numbers. This usually isn’t a problem, but sometimes clients whose children were injured don’t have the child’s social security number, which means the attorney can’t order the medical records until they have it, and that creates a delay in the process.

Medical history

It’s important when investigating a personal injury case that the attorney has access to all of your medical records, even those from before the incident. Treatment records from the incident help prove your injures, and prior records help prove that the incident caused those injuries. When you have your initial appointment with the attorney who will represent you for your personal injury claim, it’s important to provide the names of all of the doctors or facilities you’ve seen within a reasonable time period, usually 10 years. For some people this is easy, like a 25 year old who hasn’t been injured before may have seen two or three doctors her entire life. Other people, on the other hand, who have arthritis and diabetes and have had surgeries and maybe have been in an auto accident before, often have treated with a number of doctors. When you are planning an appointment with an attorney, be prepared to provide the names of the doctors and facilities you’ve been to in the last 10 years, even if it was just 1 visit. Remember walk-in clinics, diagnostic imaging centers, hospitals, chiropractors and massage therapists, and any specialists you may have seen. There is no such thing as too much information.

Medical insurance

Because when you are injured you see a doctor it’s not uncommon that your medical insurance has been used or may be used to pay for some of the treatment, which may affect the way your case is handled. Be prepared to answer the attorney’s questions about who your medical insurance provider is and your member number and group number if applicable. This of course would also include private insurance companies and insurance like Medicare and Medicaid.

Prior criminal history

While this may be a touchy subject, your credibility is very important to your case. Your prior criminal history, while it may seem unrelated, can have an impact on your credibility. Be prepared to answer questions about what you have been charged with, where you were charged, the date and the outcome of any criminal proceedings. Remember, your attorney is looking out for you and if she didn’t need the information she wouldn’t ask for it. I can guarantee that the defense will be looking for the information, so it’s important your attorney has it first and is prepared to deal with it.

Driving history

This is a topic a lot of people have trouble remembering. It’s hard to remember every fender bender you’ve ever been in and every speeding ticket you’ve gotten in the last 10 years, but it’s important that your attorney have this information. I have seen a lot of cases lose value because a client forgot to tell me about a prior accident, and we found out later from the defense. If the client had told me from the beginning I would have been able to handle it in such a way that it would have been a non-issue; but because the client didn’t tell me, that opportunity passed. The best way to handle your claim is with all the cards on the table.

If you forget to mention anything to your attorney at the new client meeting, just call later. The sooner you tell your attorney about it, the better. This will prevent any surprises in your case and help your attorney present the best case possible.

Jimmy Fasig