Handling Your Own Personal Injury Case

Thinking of Representing Yourself in a Lawsuit? We Explain Why That is a Unwise Decision

Practicing law is by no means an easy venture. The law is complex and ever-changing. In spite of this obvious fact, many people still attempt to represent themselves in personal injury cases. Unfortunately, most of these people find out the hard way that legal work is best handled by professionals.

But why is that? Can’t anyone read and interpret the laws?

The single biggest misconception regarding the practice of law is the common-held belief that simply understanding the law is of any real value. Knowing what the laws are, is for the most part, one of the least significant aspects of being a good attorney. Sure, you can’t practice law without that knowledge, but legal cases are all about technique.

Attorneys only become good through experience. In order to be effective, they must not only know about the law, but also they must know how to apply it. Much of the success of a personal injury case rests on the ability to know how to properly document certain aspects of the case and how to properly respond to official correspondence and petitions from the defense counsel. Do you know what a demand packet is? Do you know what it needs to have in it? Do you know how to prove up damages? Do you know how to respond to admissions?

Unless you know the answers to ALL of these questions, you are probably not in the best position to undertake a legal case, and that is just a small glimpse into the necessary tasks associated with a routine personal injury case.

Adjusters and Defense Counsel

In addition to the requisite knowledge and experience that it takes to win a personal injury case, you must also consider the opposition you will be up against. If your claim involves the defendant’s insurance company, you will face an experienced insurance adjuster who, despite their deceptively friendly attitude, wants to see you get as little as possible for your claim. You will be going up against a person who spends the entirety of their work day defending against cases like yours. Chances are, they have had thousands of other claims to hone their skills. You really won’t stand much of a chance against such a professional.

In many cases, the insurance company will rely on a team of defense attorneys. In such an event, you will be engaging in a legal battle with an opposition that is used to squaring off against other attorneys. It should seem fairly apparent that your odds of success will diminish even further.

But what about legal fees?

Yes, attorneys charge legal fees. However, Grossman Law Offices only charges legal fees if we win a case. Many potential clients express concerns that after the attorney fees are paid that they will ultimately make less than would had they handled the case on their own.

In the 20 years that our firm has been in existence, we have not heard a single story where a non-attorney successfully represented themselves. However, we have heard from literally thousands of people who have attempted to handle their own case, found themselves against a hurdle they could not overcome, and were ultimately forced to consider hiring an attorney to help. The only problem is that most attorneys won’t take a case past a certain point or once the accident victim has inadvertently damaged their own case past the point of repair.

The bottom line is that the only reason that Grossman Law Offices has been successful these past 20 years is because we have done good work for people. If we were in the business of making people less money than they can do on their own, we would not be as highly regarded as we are. It is very unlikely that our Dallas attorneys will not be able to help you recover a significant enough sum of money to make it worth your while. We are experienced and trained professionals with a winning track record, yet we still only charge you attorney fees if we win. You will be hard pressed to find that good of a deal in any other industry.

A story too often told

We have heard hundreds of self-representation horror stories from potential clients in the past 20 years of practicing law. The most recent story that comes to mind is similar to many others we have heard before. Effectively, a man was involved in a car accident and accumulated about $70,000 in damages. After several months of representing himself, he received an offer of only $3,000 from the insurance adjuster. This man contacted our firm and explained that he was considering hiring an attorney, but he was very concerned about paying attorney fees out of his winnings. Ultimately, he decided that he was not comfortable hiring an attorney and he decided to pursue the case on his own. He explained that he was confident that he could make more money by representing himself and avoiding having to pay any attorney fees.

Several months later, the man called us back and explained that he had filed suit on his case hoping to persuade the insurance company to pay him what he was asking. He figured that they would be scared into raising their offer. The only problem was that the insurance company was not even remotely frightened. This gentleman had a good case in terms of the specifics of his injuries, but his inability to follow the most appropriate guidelines resulted in a diminished case value. In other words, your case is really only worth what the defendant's are willing to pay you based on their level of fear that you could convince a jury to make them pay you.

Ultimately, the defense counsel sent this gentleman a list of admissions. He did not know how to properly respond to the admissions. The defense counsel then requested a motion for summary judgment and the judge dismissed the case on the grounds that he failed to properly handle the admissions. The man called us for assistance, but at that point it was too late. He had already destroyed his case beyond repair.

Conclusion

Realistically, there are lawyers out there that do not play fair and their actions are responsible for all of the fear that people have of hiring a law firm. The desire to represent yourself is certainly understandable, but the vast majority of the personal injury lawyers practicing in Texas DO play by the rather strict rules as set forth by the State Bar Association; and the ones that break those rules don't last very long.

The simple fact of the matter is that 99.9999% of the people out there have absolutely no idea how to properly go about representing themselves. In fact, even law school graduates have a terribly hard time finding jobs as attorneys because they too do not have experience practicing law, and that experience really is the most important element.