Can I Fight My Own Personal Injury Case?

Most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. That means they take a part of whatever monetary damages are awarded to the plaintiff. This can range from 25% to 45%, but most lawyers take 33% of the payout on average. Many people ask themselves if they can fight their own case and cut out the middle man. Charles Flaxman, a lawyer at the south-Florida based Flaxman Law Group, has been fighting personal injury cases for over 37 years, we asked him to weigh in on representing yourself in a personal injury case.

Yes, you can technically fight your own case. And I can technically do my own taxes, but I dont. It is always foolish to try to fight your own case rather than hire a professional lawyer to do so for you. In fact, there is a saying that a lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client. Even lawyers hire other lawyers when they have cases in which they are the defendant or plaintiff. There are several reasons to hire a professional lawyer rather than try to fight your case by yourself:

Convenience: While you could collect the evidence, file the papers, hire expert witnesses, research the law and do everything it takes to argue a solid court case, do you really want to? To reuse the analogy: I could collect all my income paperwork, do the proper IRS research and do my own taxes. But I prefer to take all of my loose information, throw it into a bag, hand it over to my accountant and get back a nice filed organized packet with two lines that just say sign here. The amount of work and experience a legal team will bring to your case is always worth the fee.
Experience: As a lawyer with 37 years of experience negotiating with insurance companies and wooing juries and even having worked as insurance claims adjuster, I know the ins and outs of the law and the insurance industry. I know how to effectively handle and fight your case and pursue the maximum awards. I know what can be won and what cannot and what pitfalls and red flags to watch out for. Because of my experience, I am able to collect the maximum award that is owed to you, while you might not even know that you could be asking for more. I tell all my clients that I will always get you at least 33% higher than you can if you fought your own case. So hiring a lawyer pays for itself.
Be Removed: You never want to be emotionally involved in a court case, and if you are the one suing and arguing, you are certainly going to allow emotion in where cold calculating judgment is whats needed. I got sued frivolously and I hired a friend of mine to represent me because I wanted to choke the guy who sued me. My lawyer friend was more objective, so he was able to defend the case effectively. You dont think clearly when you are emotionally involved. You want an outside team of people looking at it from another perspective who know the law and accurately evaluate your claim.
Pitfalls Abound: There are all sorts of pitfalls and traps that someone without any legal experience can fall into if they dont know what to watch out for. Accidently signing one little piece of paper can be grounds for your whole case to be thrown out. In one case, the client took one type of settlement, which was preventative insurance and that barred him from suing. You can prejudice your own rights under your policy if you are not careful. Not only should you hire a lawyer, you should hire a very competent lawyer that specializes in personal injury and knows the system. Some attorneys think they can do it, but the laws and insurance policies are extremely complicated. For the 33% fee, I can always get you more than 33% in damages.