Of all the categories of damages in personal injury or car accident cases, lost wages are often the most difficult to prove. While it is easy to prove the lost wages of an employee that works for an hourly wage and has a set schedule (i.e. 40 hours per week), it is not so easy to prove lost wages for a client who works for themselves. For example, if I were injured in a car accident (god forbid), it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to prove my lost wages. The key is documentation. For example, if you are a contractor and are injured in an automobile accident, you must keep track of the jobs that you either lost or were unable to take because of the injury. You must show how much revenue the job would have brought in, how much of that would have to be spent on materials, and how much would have been spent on labor that you would not do yourself. The most important piece of documentation is the name and phone number of the person requesting the work. Often times, a written statement by such a customer will mean the difference between getting paid for your lost wages and not getting a dime. Just something to keep in mind. If you have any questions about your lost wages as a result of a car accident or other type of injury, call the personal injury lawyers at Zevin & Rosenbloum, P.C. for help.
The first question I ask potential car accident clients is how much damage was done to the cars in an auto accident. Low property damage kills a personal injury case. Often times, we will get a letter from an insurance company with a ridiculously low offer in a case and attached is a glossy, color photograph of our client’s car showing little or n property damage. Clients will often ask, “why does property damage matter when I was hurt in the accident?” The answer is simple. Once an insurance company makes a low offer in a low property damage accident, the choice is to accept the offer or file a lawsuit. Car accident cases with little or no property damage are nearly impossible to win at trial. The insurance company’s lawyer makes the case about the damage to the car and not the damage to my client. A good insurance company lawyer will almost disregard the other facts of the case and simply parade photographs of the car in front of the jury time and time again. The chances are about 99.9% that each of the jury members have been involved in a minor “fender bender.” However, any possible jury member that has been hurt in a minor accident will have been knocked off the jury by the insurance company’s lawyer. Jury members bring their individual experiences with them into the jury room. Because none of them were injured in their minor accidents, they just can’t see how you were injured in your minor accident.
Probably the biggest misconception encountered by personal injury lawyers in Atlanta and elsewhere is regarding slip and fall injuries. Most assume that whenever they injure themselves on another’s property, the other person is automatically responsible for paying medical bills and pain and suffering damages. Actually, you must still prove that the landowner (or store owner) was negligent. To do this, you must prove either that the landowner knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to fix it. Oftentimes, this can be quite difficult to prove. It is much more difficult to prove than, say, proving who was at fault in an auto accident.
It is imperative that you contact an experienced personal injury lawyer when you are faced with a slip and fall injury. Sometimes little facts, that over time you may forget, are extremely important. If you or a loved-one is injured in a slip and fall accident, call us today at (404) 522-1616.
I recently concluded a car accident trial in Gwinnett County. We won the case, but the jury did not award my client any money for pain and suffering. After the trial concluded, I spent about an hour speaking with the jury about the outcome and the reasons they did not award my client more money. The main reason was the credibility of my client. It is important to remember that, in most personal injury trials, the main witness is the injured Plaintiff. It is also important to remember that the Plaintiff is always a biased witness. For this reason, it is imperative for the Plaintiff to seem believable to the jury. In this particular case, through no fault of her own, my client’s credibility was certainly questionable.
The reason for the credibility issue in this case was several prior injuries that occurred within five years of the car accident at question in the case. The defense did a pretty good job attacking my client on these prior injuries, but the main issue leading to the credibility problem was that my client had not fully informed me about these prior injuries.
Had I been armed with more knowledge, I believe that I would have been able to preemptively save my client’s credibility. The lesson to be learned here is that you must tell your lawyer EVERYTHING. If you don’t recall how many prior accidents you’ve had and what injuries ensued, you are not ready to go to trial. I though I had all of the information I needed. Turns out that I didn’t.
We are certainly in a new day and age when lawyers start blogging. I will attempt to update this blog on a regular basis with an insightful perspective on personal injury law. Any comments you have will be appreciated. I hope you enjoy.
