Documents to Bring for your First Personal Injury Lawyer Consultation

The number of road accidents in the United States, especially in California is increasing with every passing year since the state boasts a number of highways and interstate roads. If you are involved in an accident, you are likely to suffer from several injuries and damages. Irrespective of whether or not the damages and injuries are fatal, you can consult a personal injury lawyer and file a lawsuit against the opposite party to obtain compensation for your suffering.

Most personal injury attorneys in California tend to offer a free consultation to their clients on their first visit. This will be ideal if you prefer consulting several personal injury lawyers so as to figure out the best choice to represent your case. It is to be noted that you must bring some important documents and papers when meeting your injury lawyer in order to make the best use of your free consultation.

These documents will help your personal injury attorney to study your case well and figure out the potential damages to claim for as well as the points to prove the liability. He/she can also discover the strong points that can be used to defend and maximize the compensation that you are entitled to. Some of those important documents that you must keep ready are listed below.

Driver’s License

Keeping a credible driver’s license with you is mandatory when meeting a personal injury attorney. After all, it is a legal proof of your identity. Plus, this credible proof of identification is important when dealing with insurance company adjusters. In most cases, your attorney will take a photocopy of your license and keep it in along with your case file.

Police Report

When you get involved in an accident, the police is expected to reach the accident spot shortly and document the case. Checking out this report will give a third party perspective or an unbiased view about the accident to your attorney. This piece of information is significant to understand the severity and cause of the accident as well as to determine the liability.

Insurance Information

A seasoned personal injury attorney will expect you to bring the photocopy of all the necessary documents associated with your accident including the insurance policy copy. This will help the lawyers to communicate or litigate with the insurance representatives as well as the lawyer of the defendant. Apart from this, bring the following documents and pieces of information as well to the attorney office on your first visit.

• Name and address of ambulance service
• Dates you were admitted to the hospital
• The address of the emergency room where you were taken to initially
• Names doctors who treated you
• Contact information of all the witnesses and people involved in the accident
• The dates that you couldn’t work because of the accident
• The information of the insurance agents you have consulted
• Medical bills
• Proof of your income