Should I handle my own personal injury case?

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:  Hello everybody, this is Robert Mansour, and I'm broadcasting from my home office here in Los Angeles, California, where one of my areas of practice is Personal Injury Law. I want to talk in this video segment about a question that often comes up which is I'm sitting there talking to a client, we're having a consultation and a question that often comes up is they say, “Well, can't I do this on my own?” The answer is, “Yes, you can. You can also do your own dental work if you want.

Truth be told there are certain cases where if the damage is very low or if it's only about property damage or it's just a little bump, generally speaking there's no problem. You can take care of it yourself. There's really no problem with that. The other issue is if you have some serious injuries or injuries that are more than just a little bump, then you might want to get a lawyer involved because their guidance can be very important in a case like that.

There are a lot of things that people do to themselves that harm their personal injury case, and sometimes they don't even realize they're doing it. They think it's perfectly fine, but what they don't do is that the insurance company is going to be using that against them later on. So it's nice to have a guide with you.

The analogy that I often use is that of river rafting. If you go river rafting, generally speaking, you are going to want to have a guide with you in that boat. You don't want to go down the river by yourself. You want a guide who's been down that river who knows where all the drops are, who knows where the rocks are, who knows where the twists and turns are. Somebody who's been down the river many times can be of great value to you.

The final thing that sometimes I tell my clients is, I say, “Look. Sometimes if you're kind of on the fence about whether or not to get a lawyer involved, some people just don't want to deal with it.” They're very busy. They don't have the time to talk to insurance adjusters and get medical records together and write reports and try to negotiate a settlement and deal with all the different lien holders in the case and different health insurance companies, et cetera.

They're busy. They don't have the time, so they figure, you know what? I don't care if the lawyer gets a fee because they're being helpful to me. They're helping me handle this, and I don't have to worry about it. All I have to do is to go to the doctor and get better.

So sometimes having a lawyer helps you especially in a serious case. Then in a moderate case not terribly serious, but moderate case sometimes it's helpful to have that lawyer because they're like that river guide that person who is sitting next to you, helping you out like your co-pilot.

Then, of course, the final issue is the lawyer is helping you. The lawyer is doing the things that you don't want to take the time to do. That is a very valuable service in many cases. Again, my name is Robert Mansour. If you want a free consultation regarding your personal injury case, please feel free to contact my office. Thank you very much.