Pursuing compensation after a personal injury is probably a path you never anticipated for your life. As a result, concepts like "preserving evidence" may feel incredibly foreign, like something out of a movie.
In reality, preserving evidence isn’t an overly complicated concept. But it is a crucial step in moving forward from this unexpected event. Your personal injury lawyer will help you preserve and collect evidence to support your accident case and your need for compensation.
What Is the Preservation of Evidence?
Photos, videos, and other documentation that show what happened in your personal injury accident are incredibly important to your case. They support your claim that the defendant’s negligence caused your injuries and directly tie those injuries to the accident.
However, a significant amount of evidence becomes lost after you leave the accident scene, and even more disappears in the first few days following the accident. The preservation of evidence involves documenting as much about the accident as possible before this key information becomes unavailable.
For example, snapping photos of the accident scene can help paint a picture of what transpired. Maybe you tripped over torn carpeting at a retail store, or perhaps a driver struck your vehicle at an intersection. Taking photos and videos before leaving the scene is an important method of preserving this evidence; otherwise, it will disappear once all parties leave the scene.
Why Is Preserving Evidence Important After a Personal Injury?
Any personal injury lawyer will tell you that preserving evidence is critical to an accident case. Without evidence, bodily harm claims are often a case of "he said, she said." Evidence preservation offers all of these benefits:
- Shows the defendant’s negligence: Preserving evidence helps you clearly show that the defendant in your accident case acted negligently. For example, a photo of the hazard that caused you to trip and fall on another person’s property can show that the property owner failed to take reasonable care to keep their property safe.
- Ties injuries to the accident: Negligence lawsuit attorneys often see cases where the insurance company denies that a claimant’s injuries happened due to the personal injury accident. Preserving evidence at the scene and in the days after can help you and your personal injury lawyer directly tie your injuries to the accident and prove that they were not pre-existing.
- Streamlines your accident case: Often, the more evidence you and your legal injury representation have, the faster you will be able to secure compensation. Preserving evidence will help you show the insurance company or judge exactly why the defendant owes you compensation.
Tips for Preserving Evidence After a Personal Injury
Accident preservation is not only a step you can take immediately after the accident. It involves collecting documentation and proof at many different times after the personal injury.
You (and your injury compensation attorney) can preserve evidence by:
- Taking photos and videos of the accident scene
- Requesting surveillance footage, if applicable
- Seeking medical treatment and requesting copies of all documentation
- Keeping a log of your symptoms and pain levels
- Taking photos of the damage to your vehicle or other property before undergoing repairs
- Saving all communications with the insurance company and other parties
When you work with a tort lawyer, they will help you know what evidence to preserve as your case progresses.
Seek Assistance With Evidence Preservation From Our Personal Injury Lawyers
At McLaurin Law PLLC, we have extensive experience with accident injury law and have helped countless clients maximize their compensation. We can help you preserve as much evidence as possible throughout your case and streamline your payout.
Call us today at 713-461-6500 for a consultation with an experienced Texas personal injury lawyer.
