According to CDC, unintentional injuries cause more than 170,000 deaths every year, in the United States. Preserving evidence is an important factor affecting the success of any personal injury lawsuit, and should hence be carried out diligently. Physical evidence, as well as other important forms of proofs such as testimonies and personal records, can be definitive in creating an injury report and can make your personal injury lawsuit more solid and credible.
With that in mind, here are 4 things that every injury report should contain and preserve for your personal injury lawsuit:
Photographs/Videos
They say – a picture is worth a thousand words. Similarly, some of the first pieces of crucial evidence related to a personal injury report are photographs and videos of the injury and damages caused. If you have just met with an accident and are sure that it was a result of the other driver’s negligence, taking pictures of the injuries that you have sustained, and damages caused to your vehicle can be quite important while filing a personal injury lawsuit.
Even in other kinds of personal injuries, having photographs, preferably with time stamps on them can act as definitive proof of the damages that happened as a result of them. Ideally, when you file a personal injury lawsuit, you want to be able to prove that the claims that you have raised in your lawsuit are true and that indeed it was the defendant’s negligence that caused you to sustain an injury or damages to your assets. Moreover, did you know that over 95% of personal injury lawsuits end up in settlements? Having photos or videos as evidence can help your lawyer secure this settlement more easily.
Photographs or videos of the injuries and damages also actively prevent the defendant from contesting your claims and corroborate the basis of your lawsuit. Even photos and videos of the scene can help establish the circumstances surrounding the injury and in adding more credibility to the facts that you have described in your lawsuit.
Return to Injury Site
Regardless of how you have been injured, the site of your injury can hold many clues and pieces of evidence that can make your personal injury lawsuit. Motor vehicle accidents cause nearly 37000 deaths annually in the United States, making it important to assess the complete picture while building a lawsuit. For instance, in case of accidents, any damages to the public property can be a valid point to be put forth in the injury report that you submit as part of your lawsuit. In case of an injury in the property of a third-party, take photographs of any damage caused to the property in the process, so that it can be presented as a part of the evidence.
Furthermore, your personal injury lawyer can also help you collect the right kind of evidence that will prove useful for your lawsuit. You should ensure that you talk to them before returning to the injury site for collecting evidence. Moreover, it is also important to not meddle with or contaminate the evidence that is left behind at the injury site, and hence due diligence here is mandatory.
This kind of evidence will help you collate evidence that will corroborate your story, and add more forensic credibility to it. For instance, in case of accidents, the specific angles at which public property has been damaged will help in assessing the angle and speed at which it might have been hit.
Witness Reports and Testimonies
Any eyewitnesses who were present when you sustained injuries can play a vital role in building a strong personal injury lawsuit. You should ensure that you provide all the contact details and related information to your lawyer so that they can conduct interviews with them and record testimonies. You should ensure that these witnesses consist of unconnected parties, who can provide an unbiased account of the events leading up to your injury.
Since these are important pieces of evidence, you should ensure that you collect these details right after you get injured as it would be impossible to track them down at a later stage. Regardless of whether your witnesses were simply helping you after you got injured or present at the scene where they actively saw you getting injured, it is important to obtain contact details to also ensure that the witness account is not weakened by the time it is presented at a later stage in the lawsuit.
In cases where the negligence of the defendant needs to be established, witness accounts have often come handy in proving that they have been historically negligent, which can often turn lawsuits in the favor of the plaintiff.
Police Reports, and Medical Examinations
Typically, when you are collecting evidence with the view of building a strong lawsuit, it is important to keep all the physical evidence ready to be attached as evidence while building your lawsuit. One of the crucial reports here is a police report, which requires you to call the police as soon as the accident takes place. Not all personal injuries have police reports to back them up, but the ones that do usually stand a better chance in obtaining a good pre-trial settlement.
Moreover, it is very important to file the medical reports and examinations within the lawsuit in order to offer credibility to the injuries that you have sustained. Medical reports are important but tricky to obtain, because, in many personal injuries, the actual impact may not be visible immediately. It may surface after a few days or weeks. In any case, in case of accidents or any major injuries, it is always a good idea to get a medical examination regardless of whether you are feeling the impact immediately or not.
Some of the primary types of medical reports include diagnosis reports, bills, and receipts that you may have collected throughout your treatment. Needless to say preservation of such physical evidence may be quite important in the collation of evidence and creation of a strong lawsuit.
The Verdict
A personal injury lawsuit requires the plaintiff to go through a daunting process, which can result in a worthy settlement for them or a complete loss of time and resources. Firstly, you must collect essential evidence such as photographs and videos immediately after an injury. These should be of your injuries as well as any damages that have been incurred in the process. Moreover, it is also important to collect other forms of physical evidence such as police reports, and medical reports which can validate the circumstances around the personal injury. Lastly, in case there are witnesses to the injury, their contact details should be collected so that their testimonies can be recorded in time. You should ensure that you mention all these details to your personal injury lawyer and may even seek their help for collecting some of the aforementioned evidence.