You have the absolute right to “represent yourself” for your personal injury case. However, you will almost always be better off having an experienced personal injury attorney handle your case than representing yourself. When confronted with a personal injury, you have to deal with medical appointments, bills, health insurance, work and family impacts, and the stress of recovery. If you choose to represent yourself, in addition to dealing with your recovery, you also have to manage:

1. Legal advocate

Decide what legal theories apply. You need to determine the correct law that applies to your particular facts and how to defend that position. You decide what evidence supports your claim, how to convince an experienced insurance adjuster or defense attorney how that evidence will be admitted, and how to respond to arguments raised by the insurance company. You need to know what damages are related to the accident, what the appropriate amount of damages is, and what a reasonable value of your claim is. Insurance adjusters and insurance defense attorneys handle injury cases daily, and their focus is often on limiting or preventing your recovery. Courts will apply the same procedural and evidentiary rules to self-represented parties as they do to lawyers.

2. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork

These cases are document-heavy. You need to get the appropriate medical records and bills. Some facility visits generate multiple bills. For example, a visit to an ER will usually result in at least two or three different bills. One for the facility, one for the “ER Physicians”, and sometimes one or more for other providers, like radiologists. Those providers require that record requests be done in a certain way and on certain forms. Without legal training, you could be leaving out significant portions of your damages and/or bills, or not be able to collect sufficient records for the insurance company’s consideration.

3. Procedure

If a case cannot be settled, a lawsuit has to be timely filed before the statute of limitations expires. If you do not have your paperwork in the correct format, a court could reject a filing, or a defense attorney could use your failure to list a specific element as grounds to seek dismissal of the entire complaint. Other filings could be impacted as well, such as motions, discovery requests, and responses. A small error could either delay or end a claim entirely.

4. Deadlines

The statute of limitations is a deadline that must be met. Generally, for a personal injury claim, you have two years from the accident to file your lawsuit against the correct party, with some narrow exceptions. If you fail to meet that deadline, your entire case, no matter how valid, is ended before it begins. This isn’t the only deadline applicable to personal injury cases. Discovery responses have mandated deadlines, pretrial scheduling orders dictate deadlines, the Virginia Code contains deadlines, and the Rules of Court include numerous deadlines. Missing any one of these deadlines could either delay or outright end your case before you even call your first witness. Every situation is different, and there are different deadlines for different situations, so there is no one size fits all.

5. Insurance Coverage.

Identifying the correct insurance coverage and any additional coverages is important to know, so that if you do all of the above steps correctly, there is a pool of funds to actually collect. Virginia insurance coverage and UM/UIM law are complex, but in certain instances, UM/UIM coverage can be “stacked” or added on top of each other. An at-fault driver may have additional liability or umbrella policies that could provide a source of recovery.

6. Liens.

Some types of health insurance have to be paid back from an injury settlement. If they are not, there could be adverse consequences for you financially and from a coverage standpoint.

Representing yourself may be appropriate if:

• You have minor injuries that are already fully resolved from an accident with clear liability; or
• You have a small property damage claim without an injury.

Benefits of hiring a personal injury attorney:

A personal injury attorney has experience with Virginia injury law. We understand the legal theories, claims, and procedures involved in Virginia personal injury cases. An injury attorney understands damages, case value, the rules of evidence, insurance coverage, liens, and deadlines. An experienced personal injury attorney will have better insight into what arguments and facts will be more likely to sway a jury or judge, as well as an insurance adjuster. All with no upfront costs and contingency fees, meaning you don’t pay unless there is a recovery. Regardless of whether you hire our firm or another firm (we would love the opportunity to speak with and go to work for you), before you decide to settle or take on the stress of representing yourself, you should consult with an experienced Virginia personal injury attorney.

Contact an experienced personal injury attorney in Richmond, VA

Henry Jones is one of the personal injury attorneys at CowanGates. He has experience in personal injury matters involving automobile accidents, truck and tractor-trailer accidents, premises liability (slip and fall), transportation network companies (Uber), hunting accidents, medical malpractice, and pedestrian accidents. Henry serves clients across the Commonwealth of Virginia and is here to help. To speak with an experienced personal injury attorney in Richmond, Virginia, and receive the comprehensive legal advice you deserve, call (804) 320-9100 today and ask to speak with Henry. Personal injury consultations are free.