Discover How You Can Win Your Lawsuit By Taking Three Simple Steps In Kingston, New York

You’ve never had a personal injury or medical malpractice lawsuit, so you don’t know what to expect or what you can do to help your case. Your lawyer tells you that he “will handle everything” and you go home thinking you can rest comfortably. You begin to get frustrated after your lawsuit drags on for what seems like forever and your phone calls to the lawyer are not returned. When you finally get to speak with your lawyer, you don’t get any real answers why your case is taking so long.

Eventually, you begin to think, “What can I do to help move my case along?” After reading the three simple steps to help you win your case, you may think, “But wouldn’t my lawyer already be doing these things?” Probably not in most cases. Many lawyers, especially in personal injury, have hundreds, if not thousands, of cases and they do not take the time to be thorough. Critical medical records may not have been secured or a background criminal history checkmay not be done. The examples are too numerous to list. But we’ll get your started on the three most common actions you can take now to get your case moving and on the right track.

Let’s start with the first step you can take today to help win your case.

Step #1: Create a list of all doctors and hospitals where you’ve received treatment.

You should write a complete list of every doctor, hospital and medical facility where you have received treatment and list all of the pharmacies where you fill prescriptions. You should list the address and phone number of each doctor, hospital and pharmacy and the approximate dates when they treated you.

You might think your lawyer is already requesting all of your medical records. Often, your lawyer will only request the medical records relating to your accident or operation. If you had a botched gastric bypass operation, your lawyer will get the complete records relating to the operation, but your lawyer may not get your records for treatment that you received before the operation. Why? There’s no good answer. In most cases, your lawyer may be trying to limit the expenses of getting voluminous medical records by getting a limited set of your medical records.

Failing to get a complete set of your medical records is a big mistake! Once your lawyer accepts your case, you want to make sure your lawyer gets every medical record for treatment that you had before and after your operation. It’s a sure thing that the defense lawyer will have all of your medical records and at your deposition, you will be questioned about them. The best practice is to get all of your medical records, even if the medical treatment does not seem relevant to the issues in your lawsuit.

It wouldn’t hurt to do the same thing with your employment records. You should write a complete list of all of your employers, former and present, including their addresses and phone numbers. If your case involves a loss of wages, your lawyer will not get to all of your employment records to substantiate your loss of earnings. You should give the list of your employers to your lawyer as soon as your lawyer accepts your case.

If you have income tax returns or W-2 statements that reflect your wages, you should send the tax records to your lawyer. Unless you are self-employed, tax returns will not be given to the defense lawyers. If a claim in your lawsuit is loss of earnings, you want to make sure your lawyer has all of the income and tax records that you have.

Step #2: Write a narrative summary of what happened to you.

You should write a narrative summary that explains in detail why you think you have a case and give the narrative to your lawyer. Don’t worry, the narrative summary that you prepare for your lawyer is protected from disclosure to other parties by the attorney-client privilege.

A narrative summary is a handwritten letter that explains why you want to sue. If you have more than one reason for wanting to sue, you should list each reason (preferably by separately numbering each reason) and give an explanation for each reason. Your narrative summary will help your lawyer focus on the primary reasons you want to bring a lawsuit and help remind him if his memory of your initial meeting is unclear.

Won’t your lawyer already know what your case is about and why you want to sue? Lawyers often overlook different theories of negligence that you want them to consider. Your lawyer will have his own thoughts as to the basis for a potential lawsuit, but you need to make sure the lawyer gives his complete attention to the theories of negligence that you believe exist in your case. A handwritten narrative summary that highlights your claims of negligence will help focus your lawyer’s attention on the issues that you want him to address.

Step #3: Tell your lawyer when you have any medical treatment.

Frequent and ongoing communication between you and your lawyer is crucial to your case. When you have medical treatment, you should call or e-mail your lawyer, or his paralegal, to make sure they are aware of your new treatment. Your lawyer cannot get the updated records from your medical providers if you don’t tell him that you just saw your doctor.

You should send an e-mail to your lawyer stating, “I just wanted to let you know that I saw Dr. Jones today for a routine office check-up. Dr. Jones scheduled an appointment for me to see a cardiologist, Dr. Smith, about my heart issues in February.” With this simple e-mail, your lawyer can then get the updated medical records from Dr. Jones and get the records from Dr. Smith after your appointment with the cardiologist.

If you don’t tell your lawyer about new medical treatment, your lawyer won’t know about it and he won’t have a complete set of medical records from your recent treatment. Remember, the defense lawyers will do anything they can to delay and adjourn your case. If the defense lawyers don’t have all of your medical records, including records of your most recent medical treatment, they will postpone depositions and this could delay your case by months. Don’t let this happen to you.

More Information

If you want more information about medical treatment, please consult an experienced attorney.