In most cases if you have a personal injury claim or you have been involved in one, your best option is to be represented by someone who can handle this type of case based on their knowledge and experience in the field. However, there are times when representing yourself in a personal injury case is not a bad idea. Before you accept the challenge and go it alone, here are a few things that you should consider.
You will need to deal directly with the insurance company or the insurance company from the other side if you represent yourself. In most cases, the party that is filing the charges can have an insurance company that can be very intimidating to talk to.
If your case is small enough, you should be able to represent yourself without any issues, however if the case is more than $20,000, you may want to hire an expertise to represent you in your case. When the money starts adding up, you don’t want to just assume you can still do it and your side is right. You have to still prove that your side is right in order to win and not have to pay.
How straight-forward is your case? If you are in a lawsuit, you will want the case to be simple or cut-and-dry in order to represent yourself. If there is a chance that the lawsuit can get complicated, the other side may use this to their advantage because you are not being represented by someone who knows all about the laws.
You will need to do all the leg work when it comes to representing yourself. You will need to file your claim, search through your own records, talk to professionals involved, track people down for possible witnesses, and gather up your own paperwork.
You will need to keep track of all your paperwork yourself, as well as the time you have spent and any other additional fees you have paid to represent yourself in this case. Be sure to record your mileage, your travel expenses, and other related expenses pertaining to this case.
When you represent yourself, you should know that if you feel overwhelmed at any time, you will want to contact a lawyer who can pull in and advise or take over the case if it got to the point that it was too much for you to handle by yourself. Your personal injury lawyer in Edmonton may deduct a lot of the expenses because you have already covered all the preparation needed for your case. When you call an expert to help, look for one that has expertise in that field in order to represent you to the best of their abilities.