What Are the Chances of Winning a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

November 12, 2024

Medical and financial safety nets in the U.S. are in shambles. If you are seriously injured, the odds are that you will not have enough sick and vacation time to cover the lost work time. And unless you are lucky enough to have exceptional health insurance, medical bills may drain your bank account quickly. One of the few options that U.S. law provides for avoiding financial ruin is filing a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent party after suffering a serious injury. But you will get compensation only if you win your personal injury lawsuit. What are the chances of winning a personal injury lawsuit? That depends on several factors.

Factors That Affect Your Chances of Winning a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Unfortunately, there is no way to ensure that you will win a personal injury lawsuit. The way the law works, judges and juries have ultimate authority regarding the outcome of a personal injury lawsuit. If your lawyer can’t convince a jury to decide in your favor, little else matters. Similarly, if the judge dismisses the case for reasons of law, that will often be the final word on the matter. However, if you pay attention to the following factors, you can greatly increase the likelihood of winning.

Picking the Right Personal Injury Attorney

Choosing the right personal injury law firm to represent you is one of the biggest factors in winning a personal injury lawsuit. You want to be represented by experienced lawyers who focus on the practice area associated with your lawsuit. It doesn’t matter if an attorney has won every car accident lawsuit they have ever litigated if you are the victim of a dog bite. While they are both types of personal injuries, the issues that come up in those cases are quite different. You want an attorney who focuses on your type of case to best increase your chances of winning your personal injury lawsuit.

Also, beware of any attorney who is too optimistic about your case. Experienced lawyers have a very high win percentage because they are good at assessing the quality of a case and are honest with clients about expectations. If multiple attorneys tell you that you have a somewhat weak case and are likely to receive only in the neighborhood of $10,000, you should be suspicious of a lawyer who says you have a strong case and can expect to win over $100,000.

The right lawyer for your case has experience with the type of legal issues that will come up in your case and provides you with an honest assessment of your chances of winning.

Gathering and Preserving Evidence

When you go to trial, you won’t win without any evidence. You need to prove every element of your case to the jury, even if an element seems obvious. For example, if you were seriously injured, you might still be confined to a wheelchair by the time your case goes to trial. But the jury doesn’t know that unless you document that injury with medical records. Experienced personal injury lawyers will help you document every aspect of your case and preserve that documentation to be used as evidence later. Walking into court with a mountain of evidence is likely to increase your chances of winning your personal injury lawsuit.

Furthermore, the more evidence you have, the less likely it is that you will even need to enter a courtroom. If you and your lawyer have gathered enough evidence, often your attorney will be able to convince the insurance company for the negligent party to negotiate a fair settlement. Court cases cost a lot of money to defend against. If you have so much evidence that the insurance company believes you will win at trial, it will often negotiate a settlement to avoid those legal costs. Your chances of winning your personal injury lawsuit jump to 100% if you agree to a negotiated settlement that compensates you fairly.

If you were seriously injured due to the negligence of another party, you can get compensation by filing a lawsuit against the responsible person. Wapner Newman will fight to increase your chances of winning your personal injury lawsuit. Contact our law firm at (215) 569-0900 to discuss your case with our legal team today.

Making Good Use of Time

Time is an important factor in any personal injury lawsuit. Pennsylvania state law limits the time you have to file your lawsuit after an injury. The statute of limitations in Pennsylvania is two years from the date you were injured for most injuries and only one year from the date of harm for libel or slander cases. If you wait more than that to file your lawsuit, your case will be dismissed by the judge, removing any chance you have of winning your personal injury lawsuit.

However, that isn’t the only reason that you need to make good use of your time. As previously noted, the more evidence you have, the better. Unfortunately, many types of evidence disappear over time. Was there a witness to your injury? They may forget exactly what happened if someone doesn’t interview them and preserve their statement within a few days. Similarly, physical evidence is unlikely to last more than a few days at most and may even evaporate within hours, depending on the circumstances. Since your injury is likely to prevent you from gathering this evidence, it is important to contact the experienced lawyers at Wapner Newman as soon as possible after suffering your injury.

Defining the Concept of Winning

One of the problems that can arise when discussing the chances of winning a personal injury lawsuit is that some litigants have an unrealistic concept of what it means to win a case. Your priority in a personal injury case should be getting enough money to cover all your expenses and losses resulting from that injury. Experienced lawyers, like the ones at Wapner Newman, will help you determine everything that falls into those categories. It can be easy for someone unfamiliar with the legal process to fail to identify an expense until it is too late to get more money.

However, some litigants think that winning means they will end up getting enough money that they never need to work again. That is often an unrealistic concept of winning. Very few people get that kind of money from a personal injury lawsuit. And the few people who do typically have suffered debilitating injuries that will leave them in constant pain for the rest of their life. If that represents the type of injuries you suffered, then expecting millions of dollars in compensation is a reasonable concept of winning. However, if you were not injured that badly, you should focus on getting the money you need to recover with a modest amount extra for the pain and suffering you endured. By setting reasonable expectations, you are more likely to feel like you won at the end of your case.

Discuss Your Priorities With Our Legal Team

In that vein, you should be honest about your priorities with the Wapner Newman lawyers who are representing you. We can focus on your priorities, but only if you are honest about them. For example, if you were injured on the job and want to maintain good relations with your employer, we can focus on resolving your case outside of the courtroom, if at all possible.

Contact Our Philadelphia Law Firm Immediately After Suffering a Personal Injury

Given the cost of medical care in this country, it can often be essential to win a lawsuit after suffering an injury. Our legal team understands the importance of getting the right amount of compensation quickly.

Don’t wait after suffering a serious injury. Contact our Philadelphia legal team at (215) 569-0900 to schedule a free consultation as soon as possible.