California Personal Injury Blog

If you are filing a personal injury lawsuit, an Orange County personal injury attorney will want to know several things about your case before agreeing to represent you in what may be a difficult and costly legal battle with an insurance company that doesn’t want to pay. The better prepared you are and the more answers you have for your attorney, the greater the chances the attorney will agree to defend you. Here are some questions any experienced attorney will consider when evaluating your case:

• Will you, as a client, make a favorable or unfavorable impression to the jury? Do you have any physical characteristics or mannerisms that might make a jury distrust you?
• What theories of liability will potentially come up in your case, and what are the problems faced with proving them?
• What defense tactics is the defense likely to use?
• Will an expert witness be necessary?
• Would your case be better served by referring it to another attorney with more expertise?
• Is your story consistent with the investigator’s report of what happened?
• Were there any witnesses to the incident, and if so, are their accounts consistent with yours?
• Will the witnesses be available to testify at trial or is there a chance they might leave the jurisdiction before then?
• Will you be able to withstand the rigorous and intrusive process of discovery and a court trial?
• What are the chances of a favorable verdict in your case?

If you have any further questions about the strength of your case, contact dedicated Orange County personal injury attorney Samer Habbas today at (888) 848-5084 for a free initial consultation.

If your Orange County personal injury attorney determines that a lawsuit is your best chance of making recovery for your personal injury claim, he will have to do a lot of preparation before you can go to trial. Here are just some things that need to be done.

There is also a significant amount of legal research to be done, as your attorney needs to be familiar with all the statutes and case law that pertain to your case.

Your attorney will need to depose some of the other side’s witnesses. Deciding which witnesses to depose is a task in and of itself, as deposing all the witnesses is not possible. Your attorney will try to select witnesses who are key to the defendant’s case. These depositions need to be scheduled, and preparations need to be made for recording equipment or transcriber to be present. These recordings to transcriptions then need to be edited down to something usable in court.

The other side will want to depose some of your witnesses as well. Your attorney needs to coach these witnesses on how to properly testify and to accompany any witnesses giving depositions to make sure that the questions asked are appropriate.

Your attorney will need to review the evidence that the other side is presenting to make sure that it is appropriate. If the other side submits improperly gathered or otherwise inappropriate evidence, your attorney needs to file a motion to have that evidence excluded.

It is crucial that you have an experienced Orange County personal injury attorney on your side before your claim gets to this stage. Call Orange County personal injury attorney Samer Habbas today at (888) 848-5084 for a free initial consultation.

When evaluating an Orange County personal injury case, Orange County personal injury attorneys consider certain elements that have a significant influence on the case’s likelihood of success in court. These elements help claimants and attorneys recognize which cases are worth the time and money to pursue.

The first is the statutes of limitations on the offense committed against the claimant. If the statute of limitations has run out, are there any other grounds for a lawsuit that have not expired. If the claimant waited too long before seeing a personal injury attorney, he may be unable to recover at all.

The second important element is liability. Obviously, a case where the defendant’s liability is clear-cut and unambiguous will have a better chance of success.

Apart from these, the personal injury attorney will consider the nature of the injuries themselves will also play a large factor – more dramatic injuries leave a stronger impression on the jurors.

The attorney must also consider whether or not the liable parties have the assets to satisfy any judgments against them and if the defendants are covered by insurance policies that the plaintiff can recover from. Any settlement offers the insurance company has made may factor into the case as well.

An experienced Orange County personal injury attorney will be able to look at all of these factors and help you decide whether or not it is worth your time and money to pursue your claim. Call Samer Habbas today for a free initial consultation.

When you are talking about the pain you are in because of your injury, whether privately to your Orange County personal injury attorney or in trial to a judge, you need to be able to describe your pain specifically. This can be difficult to do, but there are generally recognized “levels” of pain that your attorney and the judge will be able to recognize.

The first level is mild pain. When you describe your pain is mild, you are describing both its intensity and its frequency. Mild pain may not be aggravated by non-strenuous daily activities, such as washing dishes. If it is aggravated by such activities, the pain does not ever become severe enough to force you to stop. Your life and activities are generally unaffected by the pain, and you do not have to change your routine to accommodate it.

Mild pain only approaches the severity of the other levels when overextending limbs or moving in an exaggerated manner. You might respond to mild pain with moaning, some limping, or some change in facial expression like a grimace.

The second level is moderate pain. Again when you describe your pain as moderate, it is assumed you are referring to both its intensity and its frequency. If only either the intensity or the frequency is moderate, you should say so.  Moderate pain requires extended medical attention and often necessitates medication. It may also require medication.

An experienced Orange County personal injury attorney can explain to you in depth how to use these levels when communicating with the judge. Call Orange County personal injury attorney Samer Habbas today for a free initial consultation.