How to Make Sure You Have Credible Witnesses Supporting You
Are you about to go to trial? Do you have an aggressive claims handler? There are a number of ways through which an attorney can boost or ruin the reliability of the witnesses in your car accident case. A lot of factors influence what the outcome of the auto accident claim will be. The majority of injury claims are settled out-of-court. However, roughly 10% of the injury cases are settled in court. It is in court that credible witnesses are required to make your case a success.
A Witness’ Background
It is important to look for reliable witnesses. Not everyone’s testimony can be relied upon to make your claim successful. For instance, you have a fine and upstanding guy who speaks with a lot of wisdom. By appearance, he is neat and clean. Everything about him looks good. However, once you run a background check on him, you find out that he has been previously charged for drug possession. Even if the guy has been clean for a few years, his credibility as a witness is questioned just because his past isn’t good. Therefore, do not call in such characters as witnesses unless you have no other choice.
How Does the Jury Decide that A Witness Is Credible?
There are a number of things that the jury looks for in a witness to draw the conclusion of whether or not they are credible. They include:
- A witness’ physical appearance
- The criminal background of a witness
- A witness’ statement consistency
- The timing of a witness’ statement
- Their attitude
- Whether or not they seem to be telling a lie
- If your witness seems to remember accurately, the details of the accident
- If they are biased or not
- If their explanation of events seems realistic
A Lawyer’s Role in Ruining Your Witness’ Credibility
In addition to knowing what the jury looks for in a witness, it is important to know what a lawyer can do to question the trustworthiness of your witness. Here’s how:
- They can bring to light any inconsistencies in statements made by lay witnesses
- They could suggest that the fee paid to the doctor who treated you is too high
- They attack fees paid for retaining experts by stating that the experts are there for the money
- They could also look for behavioral patterns such as experts only testifying for plaintiffs, which could be an indication of biases
- The lawyers will ask yes or no questions in a manner that is leading so as to cause doubt in a witness’ credibility
From the above, it is clear that defense lawyers and adjusters can try to paint good and respectable individuals as fools and liars. The only way to make sure that this does not happen to your witness is by hiring our Briggle & Polan, PLLC lawyers to represent you in court. By so doing, the chances of getting your claim will be high. Contact us today for a free consultation at (512) 400-3278.
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