Contrary to what some may claim, the role of an El Paso Personal Injury Auto Accident Lawyer for victims of personal injury is not limited to the financial assessment of the damages of his client.
On the contrary, he is present in all phases of the compensation process and assists his client throughout the compensation process, from the first meeting to the final compensation which can only be full when the lawyer piloted and conducted the victim’s recourse.
The role of the lawyer in the constitution of cases
During the first interview with a future client, the lawyer will be asked to question him on the circumstances in which the bodily injury occurred.
The lawyer examines the medical documents that the latter brought to him.
The lawyer first orders his client to obtain communication of his medical file from the health establishment in which he was hospitalized, which is all the more important in the event of a medical accident since allows you to determine the faults that may have been committed.
He also asks the client to collect the documents relating to each of the damaged items he suffers.
The role of the lawyer is, therefore, essential from the first meeting.
The customer’s obligation to inform
In view of the elements that are exposed to him, the lawyer is required to inform the client about the various possible procedures, their duration, their prospect of success and failure and their costs including the number of fees.
The lawyer informs the client of the possibility of considering, when possible, an amicable transaction or of initiating legal or administrative proceedings.
The necessary intervention of a medical consultant
In order to best protect the interests of the victim, the client should be referred to a doctor specializing in the assessment of bodily injury (medical officer) whose role is to defend the client on a medical level who will examine the injured person and will assist him during the amicable or judicial expertise.
In matters of medical liability, he draws up a technical note in which he decides on the faults that may be held against the doctor or the health establishment concerned.
The lawyer and the medical adviser work closely together throughout the case. This is why it is important for the lawyer to choose a medical adviser.
The lawyer must first of all check that the medical adviser only works for victims, the objective being then to guarantee medico-legal objectivity.
In addition, when the medical adviser presents his technical note to the lawyer, the latter checks that all the heads of damage have been mentioned and possibly asks him to make certain corrections in the interest of the victim; there must therefore be a real exchange between the two protagonists.
Some victim support associations claim:
- on the one hand, that it is generally not urgent to seek the advice of a lawyer on the grounds that a case is solely concerned with consolidation,
- on the other hand, that as long as a case is not before a Tribunal, one must surround oneself with an expert in compensation and not with a lawyer.
These claims are false.
In reality, the lawyer appears to be a privileged interlocutor for victims of bodily injury. He must be present in all phases of the compensation process and assist the victim at each stage of the procedure, whether amicable or judicial.
Everyone has the free choice of their lawyer.
It is therefore essential to consult a specialized lawyer because he has specific expertise in personal injury law, but also and above all, he has the practice.
The practice allows the specialist lawyer to understand the victim, his pains, his needs, his life, to know how to listen to him and above all, to guide and advise him for his future.
A victim of bodily injury, therefore, has every interest in being assisted as soon as possible by a lawyer, what is more, a lawyer specializing in bodily injury law, in order to be able to assert his rights and thus obtain full compensation for the damages. ‘she’ undergoes.