Personal Injury Documents

Car accidents are among the most prevalent reasons for personal injury lawsuits. When someone gets wrongfully injured in an accident, they can seek compensation. In order to recover fair and full compensation, it is most effective to hire a personal injury lawyer.

Do you have a personal injury case? If so, you’ll need to find a lawyer and ask for personal injury documents. Here is a list of what most personal injury lawyers ask for when assisting people with personal injury cases.

Personal Information

You can begin by gathering some personal information to give to the lawyer. For example, they might ask for your driver’s license and insurance information.

If you were in a car accident both parties will exchange license information to confirm names, addresses, and that the licenses are valid. In addition, insurance cards are needed because policy numbers and insurance coverage will need to also be verified. This is how an attorney can confirm how much insurance can cover in damages. Therefore, you must give these items to the lawyer.

Police Report

The attorney will also ask for the police report from the Whittier Police Department. The police come to accident scenes to help those involved and document the accidents. Therefore, the police should prepare an accident report.

You can typically pick up a copy of the police report by visiting the police station in the location where the accident happened. However, the police report might not be ready for several days, and you might have to pay a fee. Regardless, this report is essential for a personal injury case as it contains vital details about the parties involved and how the accident happened.

Photos and Videos

Next, did you take pictures and videos after the accident? If so, your lawyer will need to see these. If you didn’t take any, there’s a chance that others did. For example, the police generally take photos of the accident scene. Additionally, eyewitnesses may have taken some photos or videos, as well.

The best pictures, though, are the ones you take. Then, you won’t have to wait for anyone to give them to you, and you can capture all the vital details needed to prove your case. Therefore, make sure you print these photos to give to your lawyer. If you have videos, you can text or email them to your attorney.

Surveillance Camera Footage

In today’s world, there are video cameras everywhere. So if you suspect that video cameras caught your accident on tape, you can try to acquire the footage. You might need to visit the accident scene afterward to see if you can spot any cameras. Additionally, you can contact local businesses to ask if they have cameras in the area.

Acquiring surveillance camera footage might help your lawyer prove your case, so this is something to consider. If you need assistance getting these tapes, ask your attorney for help. You can also ask the lawyer for more tips for gathering evidence when contacting them.

Medical Records

Pursuing a personal injury settlement requires having injuries. In other words, you can’t sue someone for injuries if you didn’t have any from the incident. But, you must also prove that the injuries resulted from the accident. You can prove this through your medical records. If you show your medical records to your attorney, they’ll have the needed proof.

Also, you can ask your doctors for these records. Physicians can also provide letters stating the severity of the injuries and the correlation to the accident. If you visited multiple doctors for treatment, you should obtain the medical records from each one.

Psychiatric Records

Some people also visit therapists after car accidents, primarily due to the trauma they experienced. However, trauma can affect a person in many ways. For example, some people struggle with insomnia after a traumatic experience. Others suffer from depression, anxiety, sadness, or fear. If you have experienced these issues, you can seek help from a therapist.

If you do this, you can ask your therapist for your psychiatric records, as you can also use these to prove your damages.

Income Information

You can experience many types of personal injuries from car accidents and other accidents, and you might lose income as a result. If you missed work and didn’t get paid for the missed days, you can include that in your settlement request.

If you never work again, your lawyer will calculate how much money you’ll lose from not being able to work. Therefore, your personal injury lawyer might ask for your income information and a list of the dates you couldn’t work.

Journal

Finally, your lawyer might ask for your journal. Many people keep a journal after suffering injuries from an accident to prove the damages they incurred. You can use a journal to record your thoughts, problems, and feelings after your accident. Then, you can submit the journal to your attorney, and they’ll use it to prove your case.