The three most important words in every legal case
When you’re dealing with some legal matter, there are a few things that you want to be sure of. You want to know that the person you’ve entrusted with your case is qualified to deal with it and that they have the necessary experience to know their way around any unexpected issues that might arise.
For that reason you want to know that you’re going about things the right way and that you’ve taken on board the initial advice that your solicitor has given you.
And you want to know that it’s not going to take forever to get things finalised. We’ve found that this last requirement is one of the things that a priority for lots of our clients.
As a result, we’ve come up with the three most important words for any personal injuries case that you might be involved in:-
WRITE IT DOWN!
It might seem like a very obvious piece of advice but in reality, keeping track of everything to do with your case is a very important means of keeping things moving at a good speed.
Think about it. A huge amount of work has to go into every personal injuries case in order to secure a successful outcome.
From the get-go you need to have enough information to give to your solicitor about what happened. The more information you can give them, the quicker your case will progress.
Here are just some of the things where the information can make a real difference to how your solicitor handles your case –
- Describe what happened at the accident.
- Who was there?
- Were there any witnesses?
- Will they give you their contact details or a statement?
- Is there anything about the scene that might have caused or contributed to the accident?
- If a road traffic accident, were there any oil spillages on the road?
- Were any traffic lights not working?
- If the accident took place indoors, was the floor wet or slippy?
- Had any furniture or other items been left in a dangerous position?
- Take photographs of the scene and any other vehicles that were involved.
- Did you notice any CCTV at the scene?
- Was anyone else involved in the accident?
- If a road traffic accident took place, did you get the contact and insurance details of everyone else who was involved?
- Were the Gardai called?
- Was an ambulance called?
- How were you injured?
- Make a detailed list of how you felt, both at the scene and afterwards. Remember that it can take some time for injuries to present themselves so keep track of how you feel every day following the accident so that you can spot injuries sustained as a result of what happened.
- Were you taken to hospital – get details of what happened and the name of any doctor who treated you.
- Keep receipts for any medication or medical appointments that you needed or for any other expense that you incurred as a result of the accident.
- Did you incur any loss of earnings? Keep note of any letters or other documentation that will be useful in this regard.
- In the case of a road traffic accident, you must report the accident to your own insurance company so take a note of who you spoke to.
As you can see, there is a lot of information that you can keep that will help with your case. It’s better not to delay making a note of what happened at the time. You’d be surprised at how quickly memories fade and, in the case of a road traffic accident, the road can be cleared quickly which will make it difficult to examine the scene if there are some details that you want to check.
Whether a claim for personal injuries is successful or not will depend on the case that your solicitor can put forward. You can help to move things along considerably by following the three most important words in any legal case:-
WRITE IT DOWN!
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* In contentious business a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.