Listening to Your Lawyer is Vital to Being Successful in a Massachusetts Accident Case

When someone is injured in a car crash in Massachusetts that was caused by a negligent or careless driver, they may be entitled to financial compensation. While they may be entitled to compensation, the insurance companies do not always pay or make it easy to recover the compensation the injured party deserves. In some situations, a personal injury lawsuit may need to be filed in a Massachusetts court.

Thorough and detailed litigation is crucial to being successful in a Massachusetts personal injury lawsuit. There are many different phases to litigation, and you will be working closely with your injury attorney during the course of the lawsuit. If there is one thing that all clients/plaintiffs should remember when involved in a negligence lawsuit, it’s to listen to your lawyer. Listening to your lawyer and following their advice could be the difference between a favorable result in your case and recovering nothing.

Personal Injury Lawsuits Sometimes Must be Filed in Massachusetts Court  

Statistically, most car accident injury cases are resolved through the bodily injury claim process with the at-fault driver’s auto insurance carrier. However, there are accident cases that cannot be resolved with an insurance injury claim for a variety of reasons.

With some car accidents, there may be a dispute with liability (i.e., fault or the cause of the accident) and the auto insurance company refuses to accept liability on behalf of their insured driver. In other cases, the auto insurance company may accept liability, but refuse to offer an amount of compensation that the injured party desires or believes to be fair and reasonable. Regardless of the many reasons, a Massachusetts personal injury lawsuit may need to be filed and litigated in court.

It is always recommended that anyone injured in a car accident retain an experienced Massachusetts personal injury attorney. However, if you try to handle your bodily injury claim yourself and are unsuccessful, you should always retain or at the very least consult with an experienced injury litigator to file a lawsuit. When a personal injury lawsuit is filed, you will be working closely with your injury attorney and their staff.

Many Personal Injury Lawsuits Will Settle After a Lawsuit is Filed

Most Massachusetts personal injury cases settle, even after a lawsuit has been filed. Insurance companies perform an objective assessment of their risk of losing should an injury lawsuit proceed to trial. When the auto insurance carriers assess their risks of going to trial, they will evaluate many aspects and details of the case, including how the accident happened, the extent of injuries the crash caused and medical treatment required, the amount of the medical bills, and any lost wages. One very important factor that will be evaluated is the plaintiffs themselves.

The key to forcing an excellent settlement is preparing a thorough and compelling case. Our Framingham accident attorneys Chuck Pappas and Joe Mahaney do just that. We have close to sixty years of combined experience in trial work and trial presentation. We have tried countless cases in both Federal Court, Massachusetts Superior Courts, and Massachusetts District Courts. 

Over the many years of representing accident victims, we have litigated numerous accident cases. We have litigated and tried car accident cases, slip and fall cases, and product liability cases. In these cases, we employed medical experts, engineering experts, accident reconstruction experts, economists, vocational rehabilitations experts and the like. Comprehensive litigation and working closely with qualified experts is vital to present a complete and convincing case for our clients, which has resulted in many cases settling prior to trial.

The Critical Importance of Following Your Injury Attorney’s Advice

There are some cases that just need to be heard and decided by a jury. Sometimes, it may be the only way an accident case will be resolved. We have tried countless accident cases and have a great record of success. In our years of experience, we have faced almost every imaginable scenario and have worked with every personality type. If you are involved in a lawsuit or may need to go to trial, in order to secure a positive result, the first and basic rule you should follow is “listen to your lawyer”.

How You Present is Important in a Lawsuit

During litigation, the insurance company’s defense attorney will have a chance to meet you and assess your character. In the discovery phase of litigation, their lawyers will take your deposition. At the deposition, they not only want to get your side of the story about how the accident happened and your injuries and treatment, but they also want to see how you present. This is one detail that the insurance company and their lawyers will evaluate when determining whether they should proceed to trial or not.

Lawsuits and trials are adversarial by their very nature and maintaining your composure can be difficult. It is, however, a must if you want to be successful in your accident case. It is very important that you do not come across as arrogant or argumentative. This may sound almost too basic, but you must present as “likeable”.

During a deposition, you want to present respectful, pleasant, and sympathetic. You want the attorneys for the insurance company to see that you present well and fear that a jury will find for you simply on your personality. More importantly if your case proceeds to a jury trial, you want the jury to like you and have compassion for your situation. Showing the wrong personality trait plays right into a defense attorneys’ strategy and will almost always be harmful to your case. 

Don’t Think You Know Better Than Your Attorney

You hired your injury lawyer for a reason. If you are working with an experienced Massachusetts injury trial lawyer, you must trust that your attorneys have your best interest at heart and have been through cases like yours many times before. It is critical that you listen to how they want you to explain your case and situation.

Your attorney will not be asking you to change the story. They simply know the best choice of words when asking a jury to find for you. We spend hours prior to depositions and countless hours before a trial preparing our clients for their testimony. It is essential that you listen to your lawyer and heed their advice. Unfortunately, sometimes, no matter how hard we try, some clients just do not listen. Of course, the insurance company’s defense attorney will try to get under your skin and make you appear argumentative and unlikeable. Don’t take the bait and ruin your chances of recovering the compensation you deserve for the injuries you suffered in a car crash. Juries are more inclined to find in your favor and award you the money you deserve if you are likeable.

Follow Your Lawyers’ Legal Litigation and Trial Strategy

Crafting an effective legal theory and strategy is essential for achieving success in your accident case. Our clients who trust the experience our Framingham accident lawyers offer are almost always successful in their cases. We are able to look objectively at your case, identify issues that may present a problem, and advise on how to present the best case possible. Trust their experience in guiding you to achieving the best possible outcome. 

Not following an experienced attorney’s advice may result in you inadvertently making mistakes, hurting your case or prejudicing the jury or fact finder against you. The experience in jury trials allows our trial lawyers to identify and navigate these pitfalls and avoid costly errors during litigation and at trial.

Be Reasonable In Your Expectations

You must be reasonable in your expectations with regards to the value of your case. People sometimes have unrealistic opinions as to the value of their case. This may be due to the many advertisements and TV commercials where injury lawyers claim to recover millions for their clients. Some cases warrant and result in millions of dollars in compensation, but not all cases do. Just because you were injured in an accident doesn’t mean you will recover millions or even hundreds of thousands. It all depends on the facts and evidence in your case.

If you treat for a short period of time or treat sporadically and your medical bills total a few thousand dollars, demanding a six or seven figure settlement is unrealistic. Take seriously your lawyer’s advice as to the realistic value of your accident case given your injuries or treatment.  Your lawyer is the last person that will undervalue your case. Chuck and Joe have been representing injury clients for decades and have extensive experience and knowledge to assess the fair value of your case. We also know what it takes to maximize your settlement or recovery in a case. 

The Result in Your Accident Case Can Depend on Whether You Follow Your Lawyers’ Advice

When a client follows our legal advice during the pendency of a bodily injury claim, lawsuit, and/or trial, they almost always recover the compensation they deserve. Most of our clients understand that we are experienced at what we do and follow our advice. In those cases, the insurance company offered a significant and fair settlement amount because they understood the risk of going to trial. In the cases that proceeded to trial, the clients that listened to us and prepared for their testimony at trial were successful and were awarded the compensation they deserved.

While it’s rare, there are some clients that do not follow our advice and it can be detrimental to their case. For example, our office represented a client recently that was rear-ended by another negligent driver. She just wouldn’t follow our advice.  Regardless of the long hours spent preparing and working with the client, explaining how she should focus her testimony, not get into arguments with the defense attorney, and how best to explain the accident and injuries she suffered to the jury, she, for whatever reason, just didn’t listen. She chose to do it her way and presented poorly before the jury. This resulted in a poor outcome in her case.

Chuck Pappas and Joe Mahaney are experienced, qualified Massachusetts personal injury attorneys. What sets us apart from other injury lawyers is that we have extensive trial experience. We have gained valuable experience and knowledge over the course of our careers and work tirelessly and solely for the interests of our clients. We always have our client’s best interest at heart. If you choose to work with our Framingham accident lawyers, trust in our experience and representation, but most importantly listen to our advice.