What are Injury Lawyers?

“Injury lawyer” is the common term for an attorney who specializes in personal injury law. Notice that I said "Specialize.” True injury lawyers will handle strictly those lawsuits that deal with personal injury law. If “personal injury lawyers” are also practicing divorce, wills, and criminal law, they do not fully and truly qualify as injury lawyers.

Generally speaking, injury lawyers can handle any kind of motor vehicle accident case whether it involves a car, truck, bus, boat or motorcycle. They also handle cases involving negligence by doctors or hospitals, injuries obtained while on the job, and injuries relating to medications. Any time someone suffers a traumatic injury because another person or organization did something wrong, an injury lawyer is the first person to call. For a more complete list of the types of cases that personal injury lawyers handle, see the following link on my website.

One of the key hallmarks of Injury Lawyers is curiosity. Injury lawyers typically have an insatiable curiosity about their clients and the incident they are involved with. They are also very interested in psychology, medicine, theater, and the laws surrounding each. Some people can spend their lives studying just one topic and are very content. Injury lawyers, on the other hand, find contentment in challenging their intellect by having a good understanding of many different areas. This is necessary in order for injury lawyers to be successful on behalf of their clients.

Like other attorneys, injury lawyers need to take and pass the bar in their state of practice after completing a J.D. degree from an accredited law school. Passing the bar, however, is simply the start of an injury lawyer’s training. These lawyers need to be well grounded in medicine and anatomy and often take advanced courses in medicine, physiology and anatomy. They often need to become experts in biomechanics. Injury lawyers also need to stay up-to-date with current procedures and practices. This requires a continual training in these fields and a drive for acquiring knowledge and the ability to use it.

They should also be well grounded in the school of “hard knocks”, and have a real feel for their clients. A major factor is discerning whether or not the clients or experts will be persuasive before a jury.

Interact with clients
An injury lawyer is often dealing with people in pain or who have suffered serious physical and emotional losses. Clients are often stressed out and a cycle of pain, anxiety and depression results where the clients may not be at their best. An injury lawyer needs to be a steady presence, guiding his client through the legal process caringly and successfully. He or she should be empathetic and understanding. It is important for the lawyer to take the time to know the client and the client's friends and family. Without knowledge of the client and his or her personality and losses, there is no way he or she can successfully hope to resolve a case.

Liability
An injury lawyer needs to be familiar with accident reconstruction and have access to a reconstructionist and traffic engineers when legal responsibility is contested. An injury lawyer should visit the scene of every accident, interview witnesses and see if the police report has the facts correct (they often do not!)

Watch this Youtube Video – Accident Reconstruction Animation. In the video below you will see how an expert can recreate an accident and present it to the jury on your behalf. We utilize reconstruction experts and traffic engineers at our law office.

Causation
In addition to interviewing clients and witnesses, the injury lawyer needs to possess good common sense as he has the burden to prove that a client’s injuries were caused by the accident. Causation in a legal sense means "more probable than not". Often medical personnel think of causation as they were taught it in medical school as "Scientific certainty". This is not the legal standard and it is important that the lawyer communicate the difference adequately to the medical personnel.

Damages
If the client's case goes before a jury, the lawyer will ask the panel to "fix what can be fixed, help what can be helped, and make up for what cannot be fixed or helped".

The treating doctors, with the injury lawyers prompting, will testify what caused the client’s injuries and will attest to the reasonableness of the medical bills. If future medical bills are likely, he will hire a Life Care Planner (a nurse with advanced training in medical economics) to explain the expected value of those future bills. The injury lawyer will also hire an economist to reduce the future bills to present value.

Watch this Youtube Video – What is a Life Care Planner? Although the video is designed for students entering this rewarding occupation, we like the video because it gives a great description of what a life care planner can do for people seriously injured in an accident. We utilize life care planners at our law office.

If the client has lost wages or will lose wages in the future, the injury lawyer will have a vocational rehabilitation specialist discuss how the client’s earning capacity has been impacted and limits his or her future earnings.

Finally, injury lawyers will ask the jury to do what they can to make the client whole. To make up for any pain and suffering the client has endured in the past and is likely to suffer in the future.

If you have suffered a serious injury and believe that our Sacramento injury lawyers can help, please give us a call today for free, friendly advice. Even if you decide not to choose me as your injury lawyer at this time, please take a moment to watch this helpful Youtube video I created on How to Select the Right Injury Lawyer for you.

I'm Ed Smith of www.AutoAccident.com. If you have been injured due to the negligence of someone else, please call me today at (916) 921-6400 or (800) 404-5400 for free, friendly advice.

I have worked exclusively in personal injury law for 35 years.

Reviews by past clients of mine are available on Google Plus, Avvo (a service for lawyer ratings) and Yelp.

See some of my Verdicts and Settlements here.

I am a Million Dollar Advocate. This is a group of top injury lawyers in the nation who have settled cases or obtained verdicts in excess of $1 Million Dollars or more.

Visit our personal injury website, autoaccident.com.

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