I cannot speak for all Personal Injury attorneys, but I can tell you what I do for my clients and what your Personal Injury attorney should do for you:

  1. Have an initial meeting with you in order to gather all the essential facts and evaluate the merits of your case.
  2. Educate and teach you about personal injury claims.
  3. Educate and teach you about the personal injury litigation process.
  4. Track and keep up with your medical treatment until you are released from treatment by all of your treating medical providers.
  5. Gather all documentary evidence and written records such as medical bills, scene photos, accident reports, police reports, witnesses, statements, and employment records.
  6. Analyze your own insurance policies to determine whether you might have coverage of your own to pay your medical bills, car rental, property damage, lost wages, disability, or mortgage disability, and whether you have Underinsured/Uninsured Motorist coverage in case the defendant does not have enough insurance.
  7.      Do a thorough investigation and inspection of the scene of the accident, taking measurements and photos.
  8. Interview all known witnesses and others to whom the witnesses may lead you.
  9. Contact your insurance company and the at-fault party’s insurance company to put them on notice of your claim against them. Failure to do this in a proper time may bar any potential recovery.
  10. Analyze all legal theories of recovery, such as, negligence, negligence per se, strict liability, breach of warranty, vicarious liability and/or principal and agent.
  11. Analyze all potential defenses of the at-fault party such as, unavoidable accident, last clear chance doctrine, comparative negligence, statute of limitations, independent contractor relationship, statute of repose, and assumption of risk.
  12. Talk to your physician and review all reports and records to fully understand your injuries, condition and prognosis.
  13. Analyze your health insurance and make sure they pay your medical bills during your medical treatment. The at-fault party is not required under the law to pay your bills as you incur them. Your health insurance normally pays these bills with the expectation of being repaid out of any subsequent settlement or judgment.
  14. Analyze your health insurance policy to ascertain whether the amount they pay for your medical bills has to be paid back to them and, if so, whether they are willing to accept less than 100% of what they paid.  This part of accident law is known as subrogation.
  15. Analyze and evaluate any liens on your case. Doctors, insurance companies, TennCare, MediCare, ERISA Plans, workers compensation, and insurance carriers may assert liens against your claims.  They may claim they are entitled to all or part of your recovery.  These lien holders must follow the strict rules of the law, and if these rules and regulations are not followed exactly, their liens may very well be extinguished and therefore defeated.
  16. Meet with you after your medical treatment is complete to decide whether to accept any settlement offers that may have been made by the insurance company or to file the lawsuit.
  17. Conduct negotiations with the insurance adjuster in an effort to settle your claim, before suit is filed and/or before trial starts.
  18. If a lawsuit is filed, prepare for deposition, answer interrogatories, and requests for production of documents submitted by the attorney for the at-fault party.
  19. Prepare interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and/or requests for admissions to send to the at-fault party, and then analyze the information, documents and data they provide.
  20. Take your doctor’s deposition to be used as evidence at trial and have all medical bills introduced to evidence.
  21. Prepare and take the deposition of the at-fault party, the at-fault party’s factual witnesses, and the at-fault  party’s expert witnesses and physicians who will be testifying on their behalf.
  22. Retain and advance fees for all experts to prove your case such as physicians, economists, engineers, vocational experts and accident reconstructionist.
  23. Obtain expert reports, such as an economist’s report as to lost wages and future income.
  24. Prepare for and attend formal mediation in an attempt to resolve the matter prior to trial.
  25. Prepare for trial, which includes preparing written motions for trial, arguments and strategy for trial, exhibits, charts, Powerpoint and other visual/demonstrative aids, as well as meeting with and preparing witnesses and you the client for testifying at trial.
  26. Conduct a focus group of members of the community providing the facts of the case to gauge their reactions to the case and determine key points to address during trial.
  27. File pre-trial briefs, motions in limine (to keep out irrelevant evidence), and jury instructions.
  28. Fight to keep in all helpful evidence and to exclude harmful evidence from trial.
  29. Try your case in court to a final verdict.
  30. Handle any appeal of the jury’s verdict.

 

This is not an exhaustive list, but it does provide a good overview of what I typically do for my clients, as well as what an experienced personal injury attorney should do for you in your case.