How to help your Personal Injury Case
We know that you thought that once you signed the retainer agreement your work was done. Well that’s true in a way. The first good move in ensuring the best possible outcome for your case is hiring an experienced personal injury attorney, but ongoing teamwork throughout the case between you and your law firm is key in achieving both the best possible outcome for you and doing so in the most expeditious way. Some ways that you can do your part:
1. Keep good records. It’s important in Civil cases to establish time lines of events and treatment, as well as expenses incurred. Keep a ledger for yourself of any event or expense that pertains to your case. Ex: 1/29/13 Appointment w Dr. Smith $20. co-pay, $5. parking / 3 hours missed work. This is important for several reasons. First, It keeps an automatic timeline for you of which physicians you visited and when. Later on in the case, when medical records are being requested and a history of your treatment is being presented, it will be easy for you to communicate with your attorney so they can present a clear and concise treatment history. Also, some of your out of pocket expenses or missed time from work may be recoverable to you depending on the case.
2. Communicate with your attorney often. Personal injury cases can be long processes (for more information on why, see our related article “Why is my personal injury case taking so long?”). It may take quite some time to establish the exact extent of your injuries, for your attorneys to communicate with and request documents from providers, insurance companies, and other attorneys. Time is given to each side to ask and answer questions posed by the other side, and exchange evidence. During this time period, it’s good to maintain communication with your lawyer and perfectly acceptable to call and ask for an update if you haven’t heard from them in awhile.
You should contact your attorney whenever there has been a significant change in the treatment of your injury, you will be seeing a new medical provider, there is a change in insurance, or there is any additional incidents or injuries.
3. Get the names and addresses of every provider you see, and write down as much information as possible that may be relevant to your case. The location of the incident, any witnesses involved, and any particular information that you may feel is relevant.
A few small steps on your part can make a huge difference in the way your case progresses. If you feel you may have a personal injury case and live in the State of New York, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any additional questions you may have.
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