The Lawyer's Responsibility in a Personal Injury Case

Personal injury claims are quite common in the UK. Most individuals have it easy - their cases are straightforward, and their insurance companies cannot deny the fact that their injuries were indeed caused by other parties and that their claim is valid. The compensation is thus paid up and the victim is relieved of running around. However, very often a personal injury case becomes a criminal dispute, typically when it is not clear who or what is responsible for the injury. At this juncture, it is a lawyer who will be able to prove in the court of law, who is responsible for a particular injury, and therefore ensure that your claim is successful.

In order to do this the lawyer has to prove three things:

1. That the factor responsible for the injury was outside of what maybe considered 'normal' course of events
2. That the accused is responsible for the factor
3. That the injury happened because of the factor

1. In the first instance, the lawyer has to prove that the injury was caused because the party responsible did something that was illegal or was not considered 'normal'. For example, lets' say you were in a car accident, because another car did not stop at the red light and crashed into you, when you were going on green. By traffic rules, a car is expected to stop at the red light. Thus, what he did, was outside of law, and also outside of 'normal' course of events. (Normally, you would also expect that a car will stop at the red light.)

2. In the second instance, the lawyer has to prove that the action was caused by the one we're holding responsible. For example, in the above example, we will need to prove that the accused was driving the car and he was responsible for jumping the signal of his own volition. (Unlike a super-hero movie wherein the car could be in remote control of an evil scientist and the poor hero is blamed for negligence; or where the hero jumps the signal to save his girlfriend who's being held captive by the evil scientist - in which case we would have to prove that the evil scientist is responsible for the injury) Hopefully, you get the point

3. In the third instance, the lawyer has to prove that your car met with the accident and you were injured because of what this other driver and his car did. Here it is important to prove beyond reasonable doubt that no other factor was responsible for the injury, other than this other driver jumping the signal.

Although your lawyer will already know and also understand what he needs to prove, it is also important that you know it. Proving a case such as this in court requires evidence and witness statements that you can help collect since you know best how things happened and where. Helping your lawyer in this manner will help close the case faster and also help you win.