When you suffer an injury as a result of someone else's carelessness or maybe even a violation of the basic standards of medical care, you have definitive opinions about who did something wrong and the amount of compensation you should be entitled to.
You are confident that if you bring a lawsuit you will be successful and obtain significant money. What you don't know is something that will change your outlook and your idea of what could happen in your particular case.
Let me share with you two important secrets you may not know about prior to bringing a lawsuit for your accident case, your medical malpractice case or even your wrongful death case here in New York.
Secret number one:
The defense attorney will do everything possible to show that you are a liar.
They have a clear agenda. They want to poke holes in your story. They will look at your past as well as your present case to determine if there is any way to poke holes in something you have said. They want to destroy your credibility.
Make no bones about it. The defense lawyer is not your friend. He will do everything possible to unearth contradictions you have made and then use that to show to a jury that you cannot be trusted.
Secret number two:
The defense will do everything possible to minimize the extent of your injuries.
You have a clear opinion about how significant your injuries and disabilities are. The defense has all that information because they have obtained all of your treating medical records. However, they believe that your injuries are nowhere near as significant as you claim them to be.
You can expect that during the course of your trial the defense will (1) deny that their client was responsible for your injuries. Then, they will also argue that (2) if by some chance they are responsible, then there is no possible way that your injuries are anywhere near worth what you claim them to be.
The discrepancy between what you claim your injuries are worth and what the defense attorney argues about the extent of your injuries will ultimately be up to a jury to decide who is right and who is wrong.
Interestingly, these arguments come up during the course of settlement negotiations and also during mediation.
Understanding the defense attorneys agenda prior to you bringing a lawsuit will help you better understand what to expect as you go forward with a case of your own.
