What to Bring to Your First Personal Injury Appointment

Kate, this can often be a stressful occasion for clients. What can they do to ease their stress?

The more information that a client can bring to the initial appointment the better so that the lawyer can understand the issues. A little bit of preparation and gathering documents always helps.

And, Kate, is there any specific that is really useful for the person to bring to that first consultation?

We need to have details of the accident, or the circumstances surrounding the injury, so the first bit of evidence, for example in a motor vehicle accident, that is always good is if there’s a police report. If the client can gather the police report, or at least have the police event reference so that we can obtain that document ourselves. Or, if it’s not a police matter but there’s been an injury on property, a incident report that will have details of what’s happened in a contemporaneous record with date and time, and circumstances, and any witnesses. That’s really the most important document to bring so that we know precisely what’s happened, what’s been recorded, and we can identify any witnesses and be able to contact them. That’s focusing on liability. The other thing that we need is details of medical providers. So, if a client can bring details of names and addresses of all their treating doctors we can then have the client sign medical authorities and we can obtain the relevant medical records.

That said, some clients are very overwhelmed by what’s happened to them, so we do understand that sometimes a client just isn’t in a position to gather that material. We can certainly do it, it just means that the process sometimes takes a little bit longer. But there’s no need to be stressed leading up to that appointment. We see clients on a no-obligation basis, so if they come in and they prepare a list of questions and things that they need to get their head around, that’s always good. It helps the professional relationship moving forward if both parties are comfortable with each other and know exactly what’s needed.

Kate, what if they want to bring a support person? Is that completely okay as well?

Absolutely. It’s sometimes a good idea to bring a support person because there’s normally a lot of information to digest and sometimes it helps to have somebody else that’s been present. We’ll always confirm things in writing though. Sometimes matters can be quite personal and people would prefer to keep those matters to themselves, so that’s fine. It’s really a matter of individual choice. So, if a client wants to just come alone that’s totally fine as well, and we’ll always confirm what’s been discussed in writing, and what’s required moving forward. But if a client likes to have another family member, or friend, or some other emotional support that’s absolutely fine as well.

Kate, thanks for joining me.

You’re welcome.

That’s Kate Henderson, an accredited personal injury law specialist. Now, certainly the take-home message for listeners who may have suffered an injury is that, while it’s useful to have information of that first consultation with your lawyer, if you haven’t any don’t feel discouraged, as many people in these circumstances often don’t bring anything with them to that first meeting.