A few days ago, our team of personal injury lawyers posted a guide on pain and suffering damages claims in Utah. This is a follow-on post that helps victims understand how experienced lawyers for such damages flesh out evidence that is often overlooked. Note that the following investigations and methods are separate from the regular investigative processes followed by the attorneys.
1. A Medical Condition Checklist
Typically, the attorney wants to explore every symptom the victim is suffering from after the accident. So, he hands over a checklist that is made up of three columns. The first column contains the symptom, the second column contains a Yes/No (which the victim has to choose from), and the third column requires the victim to list a verifying witness or documentation for the symptom.
There is a wide range of symptoms mentioned in the rows, for example: anxiety, weight loss, humiliation, confusion, death thoughts, depression, nervousness, hysteria, fear, embarrassment, feeling of hopelessness, etc.
The checklist helps the lawyer for pain and suffering zero down to what exactly the victim is suffering from. This then becomes a foundation for him to dig deeper and build a solid case and an accurate compensation claim.
2. Reconciling the Checklist with Medical Records
The attorneys then thoroughly read through all the medical records, including the notes made by the nurses. Utah lawyers for pain and suffering are well-versed with medical conditions, medical jargon and terminology, and in interpreting doctor’s handwriting. Rookie lawyers, on the other hand, have to buy a medical dictionary.
Anyway, the lawyers then reconcile the checklist mentioned in (1) above with the medical records to check if the victim’s symptoms were recorded by the healthcare professionals treating him. If not, then the lawyers have to rely on testimonies from friends, colleagues, relatives, and the victim’s employer – along with the victim’s testimony. If required, the attorney can recommend that the victim obtain a second opinion about his noneconomic damages.
3. Focus on Friends, Relations, and Coworkers
The victim’s friends, relations, and colleagues like, love, and respect him. These people know the victim inside out and can come up with startling facts that even the victim does not realize. Their feedback and testimonies can help a Utah lawyer for pain and suffering flesh out more details. Most of them give graphic accounts of the victim’s suffering after the accident. Their feedback is such that it feels like that they are complaining on the victim’s behalf. The testimonies become more impactful if the victim was the sole provider of his family.
Lawyers extract priceless feedback from this group of people, which helps him tie up the loose ends and conduct further investigation, if needed.
4. Correlating Physical Injuries with Mental Anguish
Every physical injury results in pain, which can cause mental anguish. For example, a person struck by a vehicle can suffer from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), an injury that is likely to make him worry about his mental health in the long term. In this case, the TBI is the pain, while worrying about its long-term impact is the suffering.
So, an experienced lawyer for pain and suffering always correlates physical pain with psychological trauma. It helps him build a strong case.
5. Visiting the Victim’s Home
An experienced attorney always makes it a point to visit the victim’s home to get a sense of the surroundings and the victim’s daily routine around the house, which he may no longer be able to carry out.
By visiting his home, the attorney paints in his mind a picture of the victim that he uses to add more graphic and emotional detail to the case.
Based on all the data and evidence gathered, the lawyer then builds a convincing case that proves what the victim has lost and what he will miss out on going forward. The lawyer also uses life expectancy tables to strengthen his case (to prove how many years the victim is likely to continue suffering).
There are many other methods that experienced personal injury attorneys in Utah use to strengthen their case. If you would like to know more, we urge you to take advantage of our free meeting offer.
FREE INITIAL MEETING
If you would like to know more about how an experienced lawyer for pain and suffering fleshes out evidence and builds a solid case, we urge you to set up a free initial meeting with our team, which is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This meeting is free and places no obligation or pressure on you. During the meeting, we will analyze your case’s strengths and weaknesses, and discuss what needs to be done to make it strong.
Take advantage of our free meeting, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
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