If you’ve been injured in an accident, you may be thinking about filing a personal injury claim. One question you may be asking yourself is, “what evidence can help me prove my personal injury case?”
Personal injury law is a broad area of the law, covering any case where someone has been injured due to the conduct of another person or entity. You are likely seeking monetary compensation for the injury you’ve suffered as well as other damages such as lost wages.
To get the recovery you deserve, it’s important to have powerful evidence. Without the right evidence, it could become very difficult to prove your case.
Read on to find out what type of evidence can help you prove your case. But remember, only an experienced personal injury attorney can help you maximize your chances at recovery.
Important Evidence in Kentucky Personal Injury Matters
Personal injury law is governed by Kentucky state law. Typically, you have to file your case within one year. That means you need to act fast to secure evidence. While the type of evidence required varies based on the type of case (i.e. – slip and fall vs. car accident), the following includes some of the most common and important types of evidence.
Medical and Billing Records
If you’ve sustained an injury, there is a lot of information and evidence that you and your attorney need to secure. Notably, you have the right, at any time, to request your own medical records from a hospital, clinic, or another healthcare provider. When you think of medical records, you likely just think about the doctor’s note that you are sent away with.
But in this day and age, with the advent of electronic medical records, there are likely hundreds if not thousands of pages of records for even a short hospital stay. This includes progress notes filled out by doctors, nurses, techs, and more. It includes operative notes, medication records, x-ray and imaging reports, and more.
For a longer hospital stay or repeated treatments, you could easily be looking at volumes upon volumes of information. While a lot of it won’t be critical to your case, the items that are could make or break your claim. Further, securing billing records is key in establishing your claims for damages for medical treatment.
Records From Your Workplace
Similarly, your own employment records could be very important for damages. In Kentucky personal injury matters, you can recover damages for lost wages incurred as the result of missing work time after an accident.
Using employment records, you can help your claim for how much time you missed, how much that time is worth, and more. For example, if an employment record indicates your injury will preclude you from continuing to work, this could be key to proving future lost wages, another area of damages.
Traffic Accident Evidence
Traffic accidents are all too common. Suppose you’ve been injured in a traffic accident and are thinking about filing suit or otherwise seeking compensation from the at-fault driver and/or insurance company. In that case, there are several key items of evidence necessary for your case.
For example, you should secure any police reports relating to the matter, accident reports, and any other documentary evidence regarding the accident. Furthermore, there might be photographic or video evidence of the scene, whether through traffic cameras or dash cams.
Notably, the statute of limitations for car accident injury cases is two years, not one. That doesn’t mean you should wait to secure evidence.
Statements
Collecting statements from witnesses to the injury could be very important to your case. It’s key that they are contemporaneous or at least close in time to the injury. If the statement was taken too long after the accident, it may be less credible.
Further, you can and should record your own statements in a journal or diary, physically or electronically. Be wary, because everything you write could later be produced in a lawsuit. Be accurate, honest, and prompt.
Contact An Experienced Kentucky Personal Injury Attorney
This amount of information is daunting. And it only scratches the surface of what important evidence you may need. Contact a personal injury attorney at Minner Vines Injury Lawyers, PLLC at (859) 550-2900 as soon as possible—it’s the only way to ensure you are getting all of the relevant evidence you need, and maximizing your chance at full recovery.