Undefeated Personal Injury Lawyers
When you’re recovering from a serious personal injury—whether suffered in a car accident, a commercial truck or 18-wheeler crash or while working at an oilfield, industrial plant, or refinery—filing a lawsuit is usually the last thing on your mind. But the truth is, the actions you take in the hours, weeks, and days following your injury can significantly impact your ability to hold the responsible parties accountable and secure the maximum compensation available under the laws of your state.
Our Undefeated Personal Injury Lawyers have won billions for thousands of clients across Texas and throughout the United States, and we’ve seen firsthand how even a seemingly minor oversight can jeopardize an entire case, no matter how strong the evidence.
So what mistakes could hurt your personal injury lawsuit? Let’s take a closer look.
Failing to Get Immediate Medical Attention
After a crash, explosion, or workplace accident, many people delay medical care. Adrenaline can mask the true extent of their injuries, they may hope that the pain will fade, or they worry about missing work. But delaying care only gives insurance companies the ammunition they need to argue that your injuries weren’t serious, weren’t caused by the accident, or even that you weren’t hurt at all.
Keep in mind that internal injuries, concussions, and soft-tissue trauma can take days to show symptoms. Without immediate documentation, it’s harder to link those injuries directly to the incident—and easier for the defense to question your credibility. Even if you feel fine or your injuries appear to be minor, it’s best to get checked out immediately to protect both your health and your legal rights.
Assuming Workers’ Comp or Insurance Will Cover Everything
If your injury occurred on the job, you might assume workers’ compensation will make you whole. But the truth is, in most cases, these benefits only cover your medical bills and a portion of your weekly wages. You’ll receive nothing for your pain and suffering, emotional distress and other damages that you could claim in a personal injury lawsuit.
While workers’ compensation typically bars you from suing your employer, there are some circumstances where that shield does not apply. You might also have valid third-party claims against contractors, equipment manufacturers, or service companies whose negligence contributed to the accident. However, you’ll need to work with an experienced attorney to identify every potentially liable party and pursue separate claims against each of them.
Providing a Recorded Statement
Soon after the accident, an insurance company may contact you for a “quick recorded statement.” They adjuster will sound helpful and sympathetic, and they might even promise to “take care of you” and “make things right.” But you need to understand they have only one goal: to avoid responsibility and deny you and your family the compensation you truly deserve. When they ask for a recorded statement, they’re only seeking information against you.
Providing a recorded statement is one of the biggest mistakes that could hurt your personal injury case. You’re under no obligation to even speak with the insurance company, and it’s in your best interest not to do so without first consulting with a lawyer. Once you hire an attorney, all communication with the insurer will go through them, so your words can’t be used to weaken your claim.
Posting About the Accident or Injuries on Social Media
Most people today use social media to stay in touch with family and friends, and you might be tempted to post updates about the accident and your condition to the platforms you use. But you need to understand that insurance companies and defense lawyers routinely monitor social media. They look for posts, photos, or comments that can undermine your case—even something as harmless as a “feeling better today” update can be used to call your credibility into question.
Never post anything about the accident or injuries to your social media accounts. In fact, it’s best to limit any discussion of your case to your attorney and your spouse.
Failing to Follow Doctor’s Orders or Missing Appointments
Attending medical and therapy appointments and following your doctor’s orders are important to your physical recovery after a serious accident. However, close adherence to your treatment is also critical to your case. Because insurance companies will use almost anything to question the true extent of your injuries, missing appointments, ignoring medical advice, or failing to fill needed prescriptions are among the most damaging mistakes you can make when pursuing a personal injury lawsuit.
Sometimes these things occur for understandable reasons—transportation issues, pain, fatigue, or financial hardship. But defense attorneys rarely see it that way. If you must miss an appointment or forgo any aspect of your treatment for a VALID reason, make sure to tell your provider and ask that they make a note in your medical record.
Accepting a Quick Settlement Offer
An early settlement offer can be tempting, especially when your injury prevents you from working and bills are piling up. But in our experience, when an insurer offers money right away, it’s never because they want to help. It’s because they want you to accept a low-ball settlement before you know what your case is truly worth.
Once you accept an early settlement offer and sign a release, your right to pursue additional compensation is gone forever—even if your injuries worsen or you later need surgery or rehabilitation. Before you even consider an offer, consult with an experienced personal injury attorney. Once your lawyer calculates both your current and future losses—including medical costs, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering—they’ll be in a stronger position to negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf.
Failing to Preserve Critical Evidence
After any serious accident, critical evidence can vanish within days unless someone acts quickly to preserve it. Vehicles get repaired, a commercial truck’s “black box” is wiped, refinery logs are altered, and worksites are cleaned up. Big companies often control that evidence—and know exactly how damaging it could be. Unless forced to do so, they won’t hold on to anything longer than the law requires. Once those deadlines expire, that evidence could be lost forever.
Fortunately, there are several things you can do to help preserve evidence after a serious accident:
- If you’re able and it’s safe to do so, try to take photos or videos of the scene.
- Save any clothing or safety equipment you were wearing, unlaundered and unaltered, in a clean plastic bag.
- Write a complete account of the accident while it’s fresh in your memory, including even minor details that might seem unimportant at the moment.
- Get the names and contact information of any witnesses.
- If you were involved in a car accident, get names, contact info, insurance details and vehicle information from all drivers involved.
- If a motor vehicle crash involved an 18-wheeler or other big rig, write down the driver’s CDL information and their vehicle’s USDOT number.
Of course, some evidence— such as ECM and event EDR data from commercial trucks, refinery maintenance and safety inspection logs, contractor work permits, Job Safety Analyses, and lockout/tagout records— will be out of your reach. You’ll need help from an experienced attorney to ensure that evidence is preserved before the company has a chance to “lose” or destroy it.
Downplaying Pain or Returning to Work Too Soon
We’ve seen many cases where injured workers attempt to push through their pain or return to work early because they don’t want to lose their job or let their crew down. But doing so is a mistake that could hurt your personal injury case, as it gives the company’s attorneys an excuse to question the actual extent of your injuries. More importantly, returning to work too soon could worsen your condition, leading to serious complications and potentially permanent disability.
Waiting Too Long to Contact a Lawyer
Waiting too long to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer is one of the biggest mistakes that could hurt your personal injury lawsuit. While you’re recovering and deciding whether to pursue legal action, the insurance company and its army of attorneys are already working to avoid responsibility and deny you and your family the compensation you deserve.
As soon as our firm is hired, our attorneys take immediate action to identify and preserve the evidence critical to your case. We’ll also embark on a thorough investigation, working with top engineers and accident reconstruction experts to determine exactly what happened, how it could have been prevented, and who is to blame. Your attorneys will handle all communications with the insurance company and its legal team, so that you can be free to focus on your recovery.
Missing Your State Deadline for Filing a Lawsuit
Every state sets strict deadlines for filing personal injury lawsuits, known as the statute of limitations. Miss the deadline—even by one day—and you lose your right to compensation forever, no matter how strong your case.
In most jurisdictions, you generally have two years to take legal action after an accident. However, certain claims, like those filed against government entities, may have even shorter deadlines. By moving quickly to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer, you’ll have someone on your side who can stay on top of all applicable deadlines, file all necessary documents on time, and ensure your case remains viable at every stage of the process.
Underestimating Future Losses
Too many personal injury victims settle based on their current bills, not realizing how much more they’ll lose over time. Severe injuries often lead to years of therapy, ongoing pain, or reduced earning potential. Once a settlement is final, you can’t reopen your case—even if your future costs skyrocket.
An experienced attorney will have access to medical experts, economists, and life-care planners to calculate the lifetime cost of your injuries and ensure any settlement or verdict covers the full scope of your losses, including:
- Past and future medical expenses
- Lost wages and loss of future earning capacity
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium for spouse
Choosing the Wrong Lawyer
In every state, there are hundreds of personal injury lawyers to choose from. While many of those firms will claim to handle your particular type of case, whether it’s a motor vehicle claim or workplace injury, few can say they are undefeated at trial or have a history of consistently recovering record-setting verdicts and settlements against the largest corporations in the world.
Our firm is different. Every one of our personal injury attorneys is an experienced trial lawyer who has never been defeated in court, and they consistently set records for our clients. Why are we so successful?
- While we make every attempt to obtain a highly favorable settlement, we also begin preparing your case for trial from day one, so we’ll be ready for court if our opponents refuse to negotiate in good faith.
- We’ll refuse to settle unless you and your family receive the maximum compensation possible for all your injuries and losses.
- If the company refuses to offer the settlement you deserve, we’ll take your case to trial, where we’ve consistently recovered the largest verdicts in history.
In our experience, most companies aren’t eager to go to court; a trial is unpredictable and can generate unfavorable news coverage. Because of the reputation we’ve built and our willingness to go to trial, defense lawyers know we won’t even consider inadequate settlement offers, and they’re well aware they could be risking a very public, multi-million-dollar verdict when our cases go to trial. As a result, our Undefeated Personal Injury Lawyers are often able to settle our clients’ cases in as little as 18 months—without ever going to court.
Contact Our Undefeated Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Consult at 1-888-603-3636
Having won Billions for our clients, including some of the largest verdicts and settlements in our opponents’ corporate history, our Undefeated Personal Injury Lawyers have the knowledge, experience, and resources to hold the responsible parties accountable and ensure you and your family recover the compensation needed to rebuild your lives and secure your future.
Don’t risk mistakes that could hurt your personal injury lawsuit. Call 1-888-603-3636 or Click Here to send us a confidential email through our Contact Form.
All consultations are free, and you’ll pay nothing unless we win your case.