Hiring an Expert Can Strengthen Your Personal Injury Claims
Hiring an Expert Can Strengthen Your Personal Injury Claims
If you’ve been hurt in an accident, there are good chances that you’ll be able to receive a settlement that covers your medical expenses and lost wages that resulted from the accident, especially if you obtain the services of an attorney to negotiate with insurers on your behalf. However, some claims don’t resolve without first going to trial. You and your attorney will work together to assemble all the best evidence showing the responsibility of the at-fault party. This can include physical evidence and photographs from the scene of the accident, as well as testimony from eyewitnesses to the accident, but it may also include testimony from expert witnesses. Experts have a body of experience and technical knowledge in a field related to the underlying cause of accidents and injuries, and can both explain the significance of evidence related to the accident, as well as offer opinions on how the accident occurred.
Some commonly-used experts in personal injury trials include:
Medical experts: Your medical records will have little impact on a jury without someone to interpret them. Medical experts can explain the injuries you received from the accident and the evidence showing that your injuries stemmed from the accident at issue in trial, and not from a previous incident. Additionally, medical experts can offer an educated prediction of your prospects for recovery, as well as an estimate of how much more treatment you should expect to need in order to recover.
Accident reconstruction experts: A visual model of the accident that caused your injuries can prove invaluable to a judge or jury’s understanding of how it occurred, and why responsibility lies with the at-fault party. A reconstruction expert can use physical evidence and testimony to recreate the accident with physical or computer modeling, and can also use this evidence to provide an explanation of how they believe the accident occurred.
Economic expert: Sometimes, the damages that an injured party requests in a personal injury lawsuit can seem unnecessary to a jury unfamiliar with the true cost of serious injuries. Economic experts can provide an evidence-backed explanation of your lost wages, inflation-adjusted future medical expenses, or lost future earning capacity, making what can seem like unreasonable numbers sound logical and necessary to the average juror.
If you have been hurt in an accident in Virginia, contact the determined and experienced personal injury lawyers at the Bedford offices of the Pack Law Group for a free consultation on your case, at 540-586-7225.