A personal injury claim can be affected by decisions made long before settlement negotiations or a lawsuit begins. Delaying medical care, posting about the accident online, signing an insurance release, or hiding information from your attorney can create problems that are difficult to correct later.
Not every mistake automatically destroys a case, but it can weaken evidence, create credibility questions, delay resolution, or reduce the compensation available. Understanding these personal injury lawsuit mistakes can help you protect your health, legal rights, and potential net recovery.
Here are 10 things to avoid while your personal injury claim or lawsuit is pending.
#1: Do Not Lie to Your Attorney
Your attorney needs complete and accurate information—even when a fact seems embarrassing or harmful. Attorney-client confidentiality generally allows you to discuss sensitive information privately so your lawyer can prepare for issues before the opposing side discovers them.
Tell your attorney about:
- Prior accidents, injuries, and medical conditions.
- Gaps in treatment or missed appointments.
- Previous insurance or injury claims.
- Statements made to insurers or witnesses.
- Criminal history when potentially relevant.
- Employment and lost-income records.
- Social media posts concerning the accident or your activities.
- Workers’ compensation benefits, health insurance payments, liens, or prior legal funding.
Delete the existing statement claiming that a person generally cannot receive workers’ compensation and file a personal injury claim arising from the same incident. An injured worker may sometimes receive workers’ compensation and pursue a separate third-party claim against someone other than the employer. Reimbursement or subrogation rights may apply, so the attorney must know about both matters.
#2: Do Not Unreasonably Delay Medical Evaluation
Your health should come first after an accident. Seek emergency assistance for serious symptoms, and obtain an appropriate medical evaluation when you are injured or symptoms develop.
Some injuries are not immediately apparent. Delayed treatment can allow a condition to worsen and may also create questions about whether the accident caused the injury or whether another event occurred afterward.
Do not seek care solely to create evidence for a claim. Explain your symptoms honestly, follow medical advice, and let qualified providers decide what evaluation and treatment are necessary.
#3: Do Not Ignore What the Physicians Say
Keeping in line with seeking out medical treatment as soon as possible following an accident, you also need to heed the advice the professionals give you.
Your physicians and the emergency room staff you might have seen will inform you what kind of treatment you need to pursue.
Do not put off this treatment and instead seek it out immediately. The most important reason for this is that it will allow you to avoid further complications and long-term effects from your injury.
Regarding your case, your treatments will affect your settlement offer. Seeking the treatment you need will allow you to gather a comprehensive list of medical costs, which will dictate the settlement amount you will get in a successful claim.
The sooner you provide this information to your personal injury lawyer, the sooner your attorney can process a demand letter and settlement negotiation.
#4: Do Not Overtreat Injuries
When it comes to light that the medical expenses incurred directly affect the settlement you are liable to receive, some people think this means they should maximize treatment in general.
However, overtreating can significantly hurt your chances of a favorable resolution.
Typically, the proceedings involve your law firm negotiating with the defendant’s attorney or claims adjuster to determine the most reasonable settlement.
However, if the insurance company adjuster of the defendant does not agree to a fair settlement, it will go to court, and a jury will decide the amount of money you are awarded.
Your treatments will be scrutinized and cross-referenced to ensure you are only seeking the medical treatment you need and only therapy in relation to the accident.
Suppose it comes to light that you have sought excessive treatment in an attempt to maximize your settlement or are attempting to bury unrelated medical costs into the claim. In that case, you may receive a smaller compensation than the fair compensation you may have received with honesty.
#5: Do Not Fail to Document the Evidence
Following an accident, people tend to forget that gathering evidence related to the incident is not necessarily left to others. You can gather evidence yourself to help expedite the process of your legal proceedings and bolster the odds of a successful claim.
There are several ways to document evidence supporting your side of the events—everything from photographs to video recordings and witness statements.
You can also expedite the acquisition of medical records and medical bills for your attorney by requesting copies following your appointments to hand to your attorney personally rather than having them go through the provider’s channels.
All of this evidence-gathering not only speeds up the proceedings but lowers the stress on your attorney and even minimizes the costs your attorney needs to pay for medical records requests.
In addition to your medical costs, you should also document your property damage. This is especially true in car crash cases; you may be entitled to compensation to fix or total out your vehicle and any property damaged in the accident.
If an insurance adjuster is attempting to evaluate your vehicle, you want to speak with your attorney first so they can discuss a potential settlement with them directly.
If you cannot document the evidence yourself after a severe accident, law enforcement likely filed a police report with details about the accident. Your personal injury attorney can acquire this information on your behalf.
#6: Do Not Forget to Have Your Attorney Review All Documents
Though not entirely typical, some insurance companies will attempt to absolve themselves of paying you back by having you sign documentation that waves their liability. Nowadays, too few people read the documents they sign. As a result, many are unaware of what they agree to with these documents.
If someone is trying to get you to sign something following an injury, present the document to your personal injury lawyer first. They will review it and ensure there are no clauses that would invalidate a personal injury claim.
Signing documents like this can cost victims the remuneration they deserve and is a cruel tactic used by those unwilling to pay. Never blindly sign anything if you want to avoid becoming a victim of both a significant injury and underhanded contracts.
#7: Do Not Put Off Legal Action
Another mistake made by some injury victims is waiting to seek damages for the incident. While some people believe they have all the time in the world to seek compensation from the party responsible for their injury, they are wrong.
The fact is that personal injury cases possess a statute of limitations that varies depending on the state in which you live. If a personal injury claim is not filed before the statute of limitations expires, you will no longer be allowed to pursue it at all.
Getting involved in a legal conflict of this nature can give certain people pause, but you are much better off pursuing a claim as soon as you can. This decision will allow you to avoid worrying about the statute expiring before you can take action.
#8: Do Not Forget Your Percentage of Liability
While some people are reticent to pursue legal recourse following an accident, others are eager. Some are so eager that they feel as though they will win no matter what, even if the accident was genuinely not 100% the at-fault party.
Before you pursue a case for a personal injury, you need to consider the details of the accident and the conditions of the environment.
There are a few questions you should ask yourself after the events that led up to your injury. For example:
- Were you distracted in any way before the accident occurred?
- Were there any signs or clues that would have alerted you that you risked injury by continuing along the path you were on?
- Were you somewhere you should not have been at the time of the accident?
- Were you able to stop, slow down, or swerve your vehicle to avoid the accident?
The answer to these questions can severely impact the validity of your case. If you can answer any of these questions with “yes,” you might have more fault for the accident than the party you want to file against.
#9: Do Not Spend Money You Do Not Have
Some people get ahead of themselves when a settlement is on the table and assume they can ramp up their spending with the promise of a payout down the line following their claim.
However, this could leave you in a predicament. For one thing, there is no guarantee that your settlement will ever come, even if you can prove fault. If you are recklessly spending your funds before your claim settles, then you will be in a worse financial situation than when you started.
Another reason this is a mistake is that there is no guaranteed settlement amount. You might have entered into claim proceedings with the idea that you would walk away with a 6-digit settlement due to stories you might have heard.
However, if the accident’s severity is not congruent with the maximum settlement amount, you will not receive the maximum.
Your settlement is generally dictated by the costs of your medical care and any permanent physical pain, physical limitations, damages, and the attorney contingency fee. Always wait to begin paying for medical services until after a settlement or trial award has been reached.
#10: Do Not Forget to Ask Legal Questions
When filing a personal injury claim, it can be tempting to leave all the particulars with your attorney and not ask any questions about what happens. However, this is a mistake since not asking questions can leave you at a disadvantage in understanding your case.
Learning more about how these cases proceed from your attorney can go a long way in helping you plan around the proceedings and prepare for any responsibilities you might have to see to the resolution of the case.
Knowledge is power, and knowing how personal injury claims are processed will give you the resources you need to prepare for the outcome as required. So, talk to your attorney, and do not be afraid to speak up and ask questions about things you don’t understand.
Wrapping Up
Personal injury claims are not necessarily a complicated legal process, but can become complex by making poor decisions to steer the result. Making any of these mistakes can cost you your settlement in the long run by simply sabotaging the way your attorney can go about processing your case.
The basic rule of thumb is being honest and trusting your experienced attorney while still keeping abreast of how the proceedings will work. Doing that should ensure that your claim ends in a realistic amount of time with a reasonable settlement amount. So you can use the money to help you return to the quality of life you enjoyed before the accident.
Even when you avoid these mistakes, a personal injury claim does not pause the cost of living you need to obtain while the case proceeds. On the contrary, standard costs for housing, groceries, and other essentials tend to pile up on top of the medical expenses you incur.
Fortunately, there are ways to keep afloat amidst this financial sea. Legal funding allows you to exchange a portion of your settlement for advance funds that can be used to pay for your essential costs, like rent, while you wait for your claim to resolve.
In legal funding states, the best part is that you are only expected to pay the lawsuit funding company back if you recover money on your case, and are at no risk should you lose.
We also have a helpful FAQ available for pre-settlement lawsuit funding. Express Legal Funding specializes in legal funding, so contact us for a free consultation if you need funding to keep going prior to your settlement.
