How You Could Lose Your Personal Injury Case

Any defendant could defeat your claim or greatly diminish the compensation you receive if you commit one of two mistakes. The first grave error is to choose the wrong lawyer. The second is to delay the medical attention you need after an accident. Here then is an overview of how these errors could derail your case.

One of the legal problems that would help a defendant out is if your claim fails to clearly establish negligence. Negligence is made up of several components, and if one of these is missing, then the defendant could say that you do not have a viable case. For example, perhaps your claim failed to show “causation”, that is, that the defendant’s deeds were what caused the injurious accident.

If this is not clearly delineated, then negligence has not been proven, and your case could fall through. This is one of the vital reasons to retain an experienced attorney who handle your case with excellence.

Another thing a skilled attorney can prevent is missed deadlines. Personal injury and wrongful death claims have a statute of limitations. In North Carolina, this will usually be three years. If a lawsuit is not filed in time, then your case will be dismissed.

This is a trickier deadline than you might think, in some cases, as the three years might be from the date of injury, or from the date that you discovered the injury, for example. Perhaps your attorney can show that the defense’s calculations are wrong. If your lawyer misses the statute of limitations, however, then that spells the end of your case. You could probably file a legal malpractice suit though. Help yourself out by hiring the right attorney the first time around.

Finally, the defendant might be able to point to your behavior after the accident. If they can prove that you failed to mitigate damages, then this could mean a severe deduction in whatever compensation you were asking for. Your duty to mitigate damages means that you have to keep injuries from getting worse as much as you can, such as by going to the doctor as soon as possible after the accident.

If you wait to go to the hospital until your condition has worsened, then a defendant might say that this aggravated injury is on you, that they do not have to pay for the additional medical bills that you brought upon yourself. This is why it is imperative that you seek medical help as soon as possible after you have been injured.

To learn more about how you can help your case out, contact the Whitley Law Firm. Our Personal injury attorney in Durham have more than 38 years of legal experience to put to work for you. We also work on a contingency fee basis; you do not pay unless we win you compensation. You can find the answers you need and the legal representation that you deserve at our firm. Get started by filling out a free case evaluation and calling us today!