Your personal injury case involves a variety of issues including proof, evidence, damages and liability to determine negligence and compensation. Like all personal injury cases, it is crucial to have access to witnesses that can provide testimony to support elements of causation, liability and damages.
A Witness of the Incident
Any individual that witnessed the accident, incident or negligence is important to the successful outcome of your case. However, it is essential to obtain information provided by the “lay” witness as soon as possible. This is because they can easily forget what they saw or witnessed very quickly.
Over time, they may remember facts differently from how the event actually occurred. Because of that, it is important to obtain their contact information at the scene if possible. This will help your attorney gather all the necessary evidence and witness testimony to help build a solid case on your behalf.
Your attorney may use other lay witnesses, including family members, coworkers and friends who have firsthand knowledge of how your injuries affect your daily life. This can provide a better picture for the jury of exactly how the effects of your injury have changed your life since the incident.
When building the case, your skilled attorney will use lay witnesses to provide testimonies about specific facts of your case. Lay witnesses are not allowed to give opinions. That is left to the expert witness.
An Expert Witness
In fact, an expert witness is vital to the case because of the testimony they can provide at trial. Anytime an ordinary juror finds a dispute or an issue is too complex to understand, the expert witness can explain the issue in simple terms. Without testimony from your expert witness, some issues will not be allowed to be brought up before the jury. If the specific issue is crucial to winning your case, and you do not present an expert witness, you could lose the trial.
There is a set standard for bringing an expert in front of a juror, which is based on a simple basic rule. If the testimony presented in court is beyond the comprehension of ordinary jurors, you will likely be able to present an expert witness to clarify. It will be up to all of your expert witnesses to testify in a believable, eloquent and authoritative manner so that the jury will likely agree with the team’s conclusions.
Statements from witnesses can win or lose your case. In fact, they are often the glue that holds the case together.