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Unfair Things That Happen in Personal Injury Cases
As a 25-plus year Pennsylvania Personal Injury Lawyer, I’ve seen a lot of unfair things happen to Accident Victims, so I thought I’d write a series of articles talking about Unfair Things That Happen in Personal Injury Cases.
The first unfair thing is that the victim is often attacked and put on Trial.
Unfair Defense Tactic – Attack the Victim
You might think that a Personal Injury case would be primarily about the wrongful actions of the Defendant and holding the Defendant accountable for those mistakes.
But, it’s usually not.
In most cases, the focus is on the injured person, the Plaintiff, rather than the Negligent person or company, the Defendant.
In fact, to most Plaintiffs, it ends up feeling like they are “on trial” rather than the Defendant and the case becomes a fishing expedition into the Plaintiff’s background and a personal attack on the Plaintiff.
To try to prevent the Defendant from being held fully accountable for the wrongful act, Defense lawyers will try to paint the Plaintiff in a bad light by showing that the Plaintiff is litigious because of prior legal claims.
Defense lawyers will also subpoena past medical records to try to argue that the Plaintiff had prior injuries that are the culprit of any continuing problems.
Defense lawyers also use “hired gun” doctors who frequently work for their side of the case to review medical records and examine the Plaintiff with the hope that the doctor will testify that the Plaintiff is not injured or that the injuries are related to a prior condition rather than the accident.
The Plaintiff also has to answer written questions during the lawsuit (Interrogatories) and produce medical and income information, as well as sit for a Deposition to answer questions under oath about his/her background, the accident and his/her injuries.
If the case goes to a trial, the Plaintiff has to testify and often faces aggressive cross-examination from the Defense lawyer designed to attack his/her credibility with the hope of minimizing the Verdict.
In the end, the Plaintiff often feels as if he/she is on Trial, rather than the Defendant which is unfair because it was the Defendant’s Negligence that caused the Accident in the first place!
Tim Rayne is a Personal Injury Lawyer with MacElree Harvey. For over 25 years, Tim has been helping injured accident victims receive fair treatment from insurance companies. Tim handles Car, Truck, Motorcycle, Truck, Bicycle and Pedestrian Injuries, as well as Slip and Fall, Medical Malpractice and Dog Bite Cases. You can Contact Tim at 6108400124 or trayne@macelree.com or check out his website at TimRayneLaw.com.
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