By Jeffrey Koenig
Personal Injury Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
When you’re injured and contemplating a lawsuit against a person or an entity that caused your injury, you might think, “Hmm. What happens if I actually go ahead with this lawsuit?” Then come all the negatives: “Will I be penalized somehow? Will the other person not like me anymore? Will my boss want to fire me? Will this cost me anything?”
That’s a lot of stuff weighing on your brain, isn’t it?
Well, let me tell you what I tell all my clients: You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, please, don’t worry about anyone but yourself and your family.
As my mom once told me, if you’re not for yourself, no one will be.
In other words, no one will be there to represent your interests if you don’t take the initiative to pick up the phone or stop in and say, “Jeffrey, I want the compensation to which I am entitled.”
Don’t worry about whether or not the person who hit you with their car will be upset—they certainly didn’t ask you first whether or not they could blow through the light or the stop sign before hitting your car. Right?
Don’t worry about whether or not your insurance will go up because of a lawsuit or use of No-Fault auto benefits. Your injury is the very reason that you carry this insurance. I mean, why are you paying for it if you don’t use it? There’s a reason that insurance is there—and it’s not just to collect premiums!
Don’t worry about whether or not your boss will be upset if you got hurt on a construction site and you sue the owner of the site and the general contractor. You are entitled to bring a proper lawsuit and no one can stop you. If some entity didn’t follow the rules and failed to provide you the proper fall protection or provide you with a safe worksite, that is their fault and not yours. No one asked you whether or not it would be okay if they asked you to stand on a defective ladder or scaffold—or if you would mind taking a 20-foot dive onto a concrete floor.
Don’t worry about whether or not your doctor will be upset with you if you sue him or her, or a doctor that she or he recommended that you see. Doctors can make mistakes, and believe it or not, they’re not gods—they all too human sometimes. If you feel uncomfortable suing the physician because you plan to continue seeing them—that should be a BIG SIGN: DON’T CONTINUE TO SEE A DOCTOR THAT YOU THINK DID SOMETHING WRONG!! If there is a possibility that the doctor didn’t do the job properly, why would you want to still see her? Go to a different provider.
Don’t worry about the process. Your lawyer is there to shepherd you through the process. There is a reason that the state licenses people to be lawyers—and it is not that it gives the state another avenue to collect revenue. It is because the state recognizes that legal proceedings can be very complex and litigants need to be represented by competent practitioners .
Don’t worry about the cost to you. There’s no fee unless there’s a recovery—in which case you’ll be in the black, less legal fees and expenses. A lawsuit is there to make you whole from your injury. Since the law cannot give you an unbroken leg or an unherniated disc, the law will give you money to compensate you for the injury, medical expenses, pain and suffering and loss of income.
Most of all, you shouldn’t worry because that’s my job. I do the worrying for you.
Like the song says, Don’t worry, be happy!
