Knowledge is power in your car accident case. You need a command of the facts surrounding your wreck, and you also need to know what the driver knows and anticipates presenting in your personal injury case. By acquiring this information, you give yourself a better idea of how to prepare for trial and how to frame your settlement negotiations. To gain access to the information you need, you’ll likely have to engage in what’s known as the discovery process. While this highly technical aspect of your case might seem boring, it really can make or break your case.
So, what goes into the discovery process and how can you use it to your advantage? That’s a question we hope to answer here.
Discovery is a tool that any party to a case can use to their advantage. Therefore, while you can use the process to help build your case, the other side is also going to use it to try to destroy your claim. Here are some ways you can use discovery to help build your personal injury claim:
- Requests for production: You can request that the defendant provide you with any documentation that’s relevant to your claim. This is especially helpful in cases involving semi-trucks, where you might be able to get your hands on trucking logs, maintenance records and personnel files. These records may highlight negligent behaviors that contributed to your accident.
- Requests for admissions: Through discovery, you can force the other side to admit or deny certain facts. And if they fail to respond within a certain period of time, then those facts are deemed admitted. While this can give you other evidence that you can use at trial, at a minimum it can help whittle down the focus of your case so that you’re only presenting evidence on those issues that are truly contested.
- Deposition: A deposition, which we’ve discussed previously on the blog, gives you the opportunity to question the defendant well before trial. This locks them into their account of events, and it might help you demonstrate how their testimony is unreliable if their depositional testimony differs from their trial testimony.
- Interrogatories: You can also have the defendant ask certain questions, which will guide the development of your case. It can also help you identify who the defendant intends to call as witnesses in their case and which exhibits they intend to introduce into evidence. This gives you enough time to analyze these witnesses and exhibits to find weaknesses and ways to either minimize their impact on your case, or even block them altogether.
Remember, the other side might hit you with all sorts of discovery, too. This is oftentimes a tactic used to try to pressure you into settlement or to find ways to attack your claim. So, be prepared to adequately respond to discovery requests so that you follow the rules while still protecting your interests.
Competently navigate your personal injury case
One misstep during your personal injury case could cost you the compensation and closure that you need. Therefore, you can’t afford to present anything less than the strongest case possible. Now is the time to start building that case. You can gather evidence, talk to witnesses, and educate yourself on the law so that you form the building blocks of what will hopefully be a successful case. Then, together with your attorney, you can build the legal arguments that’ll persuasively speak to the applicable elements in your case, putting you on firm footing to obtain the resolution you want.
