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Tools for Gathering Evidence in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

How Your Lawyer Gets Factual Support for Your Claims

Tools for Gathering Evidence in a Personal Injury LawsuitWhen you’ve suffered any type of injury because of the wrongful acts of another person, you have a right to file a lawsuit to recover damages. If your case goes before a judge and jury, you’ll need to introduce factual evidence supporting your claim. How does your lawyer gather the necessary evidence to convince a jury to award you compensation?

The Tools Available from the Court to Help Parties Gather Evidence

Within the legal process, there are three specific tools you can use to obtain evidence:

  • Depositions—A deposition is an out-of-court examination of a witness, made under oath, typically with a court reporter present. Attorneys for all parties to a lawsuit will have the opportunity to ask the witness questions. Depositions may also be videotaped. Evidence may be disclosed during a deposition that will not be admissible at trial. Customarily, attorneys will voice their objections on the record, and the court will make determinations before trial as to whether evidence can be presented to the jury.
  • Request for production—This tool allows a party access to physical evidence in a case, including documents, electronic data and other physical items. The party to whom the request is made must either comply or respond with a written explanation why the evidence cannot be provided.
  • Interrogatories—Interrogatories are lists of questions submitted by one party to another. They must typically be responded to in writing. Interrogatories may be used to learn facts about a case, but may not be used to ask about another party’s legal theory of the case, or to solicit an opinion about the case. In most instances, the court can compel you to respond to interrogatories, unless a valid objection may be raised. The court will ultimately determine whether the objection applies. If it does, a party may be compelled to answer to the extent that it is not objectionable.

Contact the Law Office of Howard D. Popper

At the Law Offices of Howard D. Popper, we can help protect your rights. For a free initial consultationto discuss your options after any type of personal injury, contact our office online or call 973-993-8787 to set up an appointment. We have offices in Morristown and Newton.

We handle all personal injury claims on a contingent fee basis. You won’t pay any attorney fees unless we recover damages for your losses.