Myths And Falsehoods The Public Believes About Personal Injury Cases
Like so many areas that are somewhat foreign to the general public, the world of personal injury law is filled with myths that have somehow made it into the psyche of the general public. Many people have beliefs about the personal injury system that are simply not true—or which are based somewhat in truth, but are not the actual truth.
Here are some of the more common myths that the general public believes about personal injury cases
You will always get compensation – There is the belief that if you get injured, you tell the Defendant or the insurance company, and a check shows up in the mail days later.
While injury victims can and do get compensation for injuries, the idea that insurance companies just throw money at injury victims, is simply not true. This myth seems to have been perpetuated by the stories of a “neighbor who got a million dollars for a scrape.” In reality, insurance companies and defendants fight injury cases, and they fight them hard.
They will low-ball injury victims with minimal offers, come up with baseless defenses, and offer pennies on the dollar for compensation—unless they are taken to task by a good injury attorney.
If you were at fault, you cannot recover – In many injury cases, the victim did or does something wrong to contribute to or to cause the accident or injuries. But that doesn’t mean that the victim caused his or her own injury or accident. It just means that it is totally normal for a victim to err in some way—but still get compensation for his or her own injuries.
Never assume on your own that you caused your own accident, or that you were at fault, or that you can’t get compensation because of something you did or did not do. You may well find that whatever fault you have, has no impact on your ability to recover damages.
Juries sympathize with injury victims – Yes, with a good attorney and by properly presenting testimony and evidence, the jury can, should and possibly will, sympathize with you in your injury trial.
But don’t assume that any jury will just automatically sympathize with you. Many jurors go into cases more sympathetic towards the Defendant. It takes good evidence and an attorney who can present your case properly, to win many jurors over.
You can’t be compensated for injuries you had before the accident – These are called pre-existing injuries. And while you cannot recover for an injury that you had before an accident, you can recover for an injury that you had before an accident, that was made worse by, or which was exacerbated by, the accident.
This of course takes medical evidence and testimony—including your own—to explain to the jury how your prior condition was worsened or exacerbated or made more serious by the accident.
Don’t guess–get real answers to your questions about your personal injury case. Contact our Rhode Island personal injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 today.
Sources:
pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/litigation/contributory-and-comparative-negligence-by-state/#:~:text=Rhode%20Island,negligence%20attributable%20to%20the%20plaintiff.
digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1209&context=psychfacpub
