Tag: stand

4 Things You Can’t Claim on the Witness Stand

1. You were not allowed to say how your insurance unfairly treated you even if this was the reason you did not seek treatment for your injuries in the first place.

2. You can’t say that the insurance adjuster was unfair in dealing with your case and was not even offering a settlement that would cover only your medical bills and not to mention any pain an suffering or loss of wages.

3. Unless presented to the court prior to a certain date, you are not allowed to say the exact total of your recently incurred medical expenses. You were only allowed to claim what had been presented to the court by your lawyer and if they are not advising you correctly this is the reason for a lower settlement amount. The jury can only reward you money for the recovered damages that they are aware of. In my personal experienced over $20,000 worth of medical expenses were not properly presented before trail.

4. You are not allowed to account for what any doctors told you. The opposing counsel will object stating that you are not an expert witness. To get around this, just re-word your testimony by instead of saying “the doctor said” to “after the wreck I had …”.

What You CAN’T Say On The Witness Stand

The following is direct legal advise:

Just to emphasize: At trial you can’t talk about any settlement offers, or the mediation, or your frustrations with the insurance company. I do not want to give the defense anything that could be a basis for appeal or mistrial.

The trial will actually be simply about the damages and what it is worth: the injury which did not exist before the wreck and all the problems associated with the injuries / the pain and suffering / how the injuries have affected your lives, the medical treatment and bills.

4 Forbidden Things to Say On The Witness Stand?

I was so shocked to learn that there are certain things you cannot say on the witness stand. It was a great irony to me due to that you would think the courthouse is one of justice and truth. However, before going on the stand, my lawyer advised me of all of the facts I could not reveal in order for our case not to be considered as a mistrial. This included:

1. You were not allowed to mention how your insurance unfairly treated you even if this was the reason you did not initially seek treatment for your injuries.

2. You were not allowed to say that the insurance adjuster was unfair in dealing with your case and was not even offering a settlement that would cover only your medical bills and not to mention any pain an suffering or loss of wages.

3. Unless presented to the court prior to a certain date, you are not allowed to say the exact total of your recently incurred medical expenses. You were only allowed to claim what had been presented to the court by your lawyer and if they are not advising you correctly this is the reason for a lower settlement amount. The jury can only reward you money for the recovered damages that they are aware of. In my personal experienced over $20,000 worth of medical expenses were not properly presented before trail.

4. You are not allowed to account for what any doctors told you. The opposing counsel will object stating that you are not an expert witness. To get around this, just re-word your testimony by instead of saying “the doctor said” to “after the wreck I had …”.

So the truth is that there is not much you can say on the witness stand. So, how is justice to be served if you cannot attest to your loss of life, your pain and suffering, your complete medical bills and to the fact of your future medical expenses of surgery.