Addressing the Client’s Emotional Toll in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Most of the time when attorneys talk about the emotional aspects of a personal injury claim, they focus on how emotional conditions like mental anguish or post-traumatic stress disorder factor into settlement calculations or judgment awards. What can get lost, however, are the emotions you experience when you are working with your personal injury lawyer, and how these affect your well-being.

In this post, we consider the emotional toll that a personal injury case can have on you, and how the attorneys who represent you in the resolution process can help you cope with it.

Your emotions as a client in a personal injury case

For most people, conflict is abnormal. We don’t seek it; we seek to avoid it. Going back to the origins of humanity, an unavoidable personal conflict has often been a serious or even existential matter; it means that we have at least partially lost control over the circumstances of our lives. The corresponding “fight or flight” emotional states are powerful yet unfamiliar.

When you are injured through the negligent, reckless, or intentional behavior of someone else, and you need to seek a remedy under the law, you will likely be exposed to personal conflict through the “adversarial system.” Even though you will not be personally confronting the person who harmed you, chances are you will still find yourself engaged in conflict indirectly with an insurance adjuster, a defense lawyer, or both – in an environment of laws and regulations that are alien to you.

Because of the trauma of the injury event and then having to fight for redress, you will likely go through intensely stressful emotional states, which can include:

• Anger
• Fear
• Worry
• Doubt
• Frustration
• Anxiety
• Uncertainty
• Grief

Any personal injury attorney who represents you will help you seek the compensation you deserve, including for your emotional harm when it’s in your best interest to do so. The most experienced attorneys will also understand how difficult this journey is for you and will support you through every step.

How your personal injury attorney eases the emotional impact of a personal injury claim

An experienced personal injury attorney knows that the emotional turmoil you feel in the aftermath of an accident or other injury-causing event only gets magnified when you feel uninformed, confused, and helpless.

The best way your lawyer can avoid this gnawing sense of frustration, anxiety, and even anger is to communicate with you early, clearly, and often.

Understanding what you are experiencing

Unless you are a personal injury lawyer yourself, chances are that you have no experience with how the claim settlement process works. Your attorney needs to anticipate this and help you from the outset by knowing what you are going through and what you can expect.

Quality personal injury lawyers never forget that ultimately, helping others is the reason why they joined the legal profession. It is not a mechanical exercise: you should never wonder if your own sense of human dignity and worth is a secondary consideration to your own attorney.

Communicating clearly about your case

Lawyers are used to working with complex and even arcane terminology when dealing with the courts and each other. The temptation for some is to think that everyone else is as comfortable as they are with “legalese.” Bewilderment and frustration are the natural emotional responses when someone is explaining something to you using jargon in a way that is only partly comprehensible to you.

Experienced personal injury attorneys know how to keep you informed in a way that has meaning to you, letting you ask questions about anything unfamiliar.

Being responsive to your communications

“He doesn’t return my calls” is one of the most frequent client complaints about attorneys, and an avoidable source of client frustration and anger with their own lawyers. Few things alienate clients more than their own attorneys being “too busy” for them.

No attorney should be so overwhelmed with other client matters that they allow days to pass without replying to your inquiry, even if it’s to have a member of the lawyer’s staff make the response. A quality personal injury attorney will never leave you feeling like your questions and concerns don’t matter.

Keeping you updated on the progress of your case

Client confusion, worry, and doubt are the byproducts of being left in the dark about developments in their personal injury claims. Not every client feels comfortable taking the lead in asking about what is happening with their legal matter. Attorneys who mistake client silence with client satisfaction risk making a serious misapprehension that can lead to client complaints about the quality of their legal representation.

A good attorney will never let a client matter lie fallow for too long without periodically keeping the client informed of progress, even if to say that nothing has changed since the last communication.

Keeping it real with you

Short of a judgment award or signed settlement agreement, you get to decide your goals. Your personal injury attorney is ethically bound to represent you to the best of that person’s ability, but this does not include giving you false impressions about the strengths or weaknesses of your claims.

The respect you have for your own attorney has an emotional quality, and honesty is a cornerstone of respect. Your attorney should always be completely forthright with you about your case and fully inform you of how it is developing so you can realistically manage your own expectations. It is never acceptable for an attorney to mislead you about your legal prospects, especially if doing so serves the lawyer’s interests but not yours.

KBG Injury Law: Helping you manage the stress of a personal injury claim

Suffering an injury involves emotional stress. It can be difficult to make the right choices when you are experiencing the stress of an accident and the adversarial legal system.

The York attorneys at KBG Injury Law understand how an accident and injuries can throw your life into an emotional rollercoaster of uncertainty, worry, doubt, and frustration. Our empathetic yet professional personal injury attorneys have nearly four decades of experience serving the people of South Central Pennsylvania, and we can help you to get through the turmoil of settling or litigating your claim.

Contact KBG Injury Law today for a free consultation by calling us or filling out our contact form. We have offices in York, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Hanover, and Gettysburg, and serve clients throughout South Central Pennsylvania.