3 Steps to Finding Missing Evidence for Your Personal Injury Lawsuit

Since the injury, your life hasn’t been the same. Months of recovery await you. You’re stuck to a couch, confined to your home, unable to work, and depressed.

You’d be lost if you didn't know a personal injury attorney could help you build your case. Still, you’re not entirely confident, as you don’t have the money to pay the fees.

You need to gather evidence on your own. But when that evidence is missing or difficult to obtain, you need some fast solutions to save money on legal fees, as you know eventually, you’ll have to hire an attorney. Here’s how to find missing evidence for your personal injury claim, beginning with an explanation of what the law says about evidence.

What the law says about evidence for personal injury lawsuits

The law allows you to use only relevant pieces of evidence to ensure fairness in a case. Winning compensation or punitive damages depends on your ability to provide supporting documents as evidence to support your claim. The evidence must affirm that the person responsible for your injury had a duty, failed to meet that duty, and you suffered damages as a result.

Say you fell on the sidewalk. All because your neighbor failed to shovel their share of the snow. Community guidelines made it a requirement, so you know you have a case. You might bring photographs of your injuries, but photographs of the defendant’s family wouldn’t be relevant, and thus wouldn’t be permitted as evidence by a judge.

Types of admissible evidence include:

• incident and law enforcement reports

• expert witness testimony

• medical bills

• accident reconstruction reports

• photographs of the scene and injury

• clothing worn at the time of the incident, and,

• sound and video recordings

Everything you need to prove who’s responsible.

With that in mind, evidence in a personal injury case can prove compelling enough to sway the outcome in your favor. And that's even when you feel doubtful about the settlement offer a lawsuit or claim will yield.

For example, in 1988, during the case of MIRAMON v. BRADLEY, university student Julie Miramon experienced two car accidents, the first being serious, and the latter, only amounting to what most would consider to be a mild fender-bender. While initially suffering no significant physical injuries, the plaintiff experienced severe mental distress, including an eating disorder and anxiety, but was still awarded no compensation. The trial court later discovered the second impact still affected the first, contributing to additional suffering for which Miramon should have been awarded $709 for medical expenses and $6,000 for prolonged suffering. A striking case of this magnitude shows how medical documentation can lead to a favorable outcome for a determined plaintiff.

Still, you have to wonder why these documents are so hard to find.

Why evidence for your personal injury lawsuit is hard to find

Finding documents needed for a personal injury claim can be challenging, even if you have plenty of resources and time to devote to the task. You need extraordinary strength, energy, willpower, and courage to gather evidence for your case, and that’s even when evidence is easy to obtain.

For the record, missing or hard-to-find documents could mean:

• The documents are lost in a database

• The documents have been stolen by a thief

• The documents are restricted

• The documents have been misplaced by you or a family member, or,

• The documents are unattainable for complex, hard-to-understand reasons

If documents and evidence are missing or hard to find, you’ll have to think about how much you’re willing to spend to get an attorney to do the work. Your personal injury attorney will either charge you a contingency fee, meaning they collect a percentage of the settlement, or charge you a flat fee if they decide not to stick to the hourly rate. While the best attorneys will provide you with a rigorous defense, any work done on your part ultimately lowers your bill, and could even shorten the time it takes for you to get a settlement offer. For that reason, you need a strategy. A path forward to find evidence that eludes you.

How to find missing evidence for your personal injury lawsuit

An extra phone call, follow-up letter, or submission into an organization’s web form can get you in front of the next source of information. That source is now your stepping stone in uncovering additional documentation.

According to the Department of Justice, 90-95% of cases are settled before trial. Add to that the addition of compelling evidence, and you have your motive for going above and beyond to recover missing documents.

In addition, any effort on your part helps a personal injury attorney work off of your momentum from the start. Where an attorney can fill in the gaps, your efforts save you money, and thanks to your courage to hunt for the truth, hope for a healthy life will return.

With that in mind, here’s how to find lost, missing, or hard-to-find documents, all of which will strengthen your case and boost your chances of being awarded damages.

1. Use existing documents to uncover other documents

For a fast start in finding missing documents, use personal notes, smartphone app data, calendars, appointment cards, and personal journal or diary entries to trigger your memory to uncover more details. These details lead to more questions—and more sources of information—all of which reveal additional documents you couldn’t uncover.

A note on your smartphone’s calendar app from months ago might include the name of the doctor you had an appointment with, as well as the location of the building where you sought services. Meanwhile, a journal entry about your suffering can reveal insight that sparks your memory when you need it most.

Build upon each step in your investigation. Keep notes and draw connections, both between the locations you visited and the documents you need. Then, consider the documents you signed and the professionals you spoke with, and fill in the gaps by adding more documents than you had before.

The more details you uncover using documents you already have, the better. In the first few days, you’ll need patience and the willingness to save money on legal fees to persevere in your fight to uncover the truth. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 31 million injuries occur every year that require a doctor’s attention. Of those, 2 million require hospitalization. These shocking statistics suggest that people who are injured and wronged want to reclaim some of their dignity by doing some of the hard work themselves, then leave the rest to an attorney. If you’re that hopeful plaintiff, choose to be more than a statistic. Fight to get your case settled out of court. From there, you can…

2. Reach out to more people to gather additional documents and expert testimony

Talk to people, both strangers, and friends, and develop the habit of reaching out to five people every day of the week. Remember, documents you still need might provide more concrete proof, but so can witness statements, and even better, statements from those who experienced a similar injury as the result of the defendant’s actions.

If you want to connect with more people, start by:

• Revisiting the scene: talk to customers, employees working in the area, tourists, or locals.

• Talk to relatives and acquaintances of each witness: Start with a single witness and expand your list to include expert testimony from anyone the witness knows.

• Research the company, organization, or individual: Try advanced Google research, conduct background checks, check reviews, and look at social media.

The more witnesses you can find on your own, the less you’ll pay in legal fees since an attorney will have less work to do from the beginning. Since attorneys may charge hourly fees, understand how research on personal injury cases from the Department of Justice impacts your ability to branch out and gather additional testimony by finding new witnesses. The research shows 52% of personal injury cases are related to vehicle accidents and 15% revolve around medical malpractice.

So, if you’re in a crash, there were likely dozens of drivers who could provide witness statements. For medical malpractice, plenty of other patients may have similar horror stories. No matter the specifics, you can regain a sense of control over your case. Start by finding people around you that have stories to tell.

Hire an attorney only when you’re ready

Unless you’re an experienced investigator, gathering evidence to support a personal injury claim will require hundreds of hours of deep thinking, investigation, and analysis that will leave you feeling weary. The first few days might be successful, but in a months’ time, it’s easy to lose focus. Therefore, it’s better to hire an attorney when you’re ready, especially if you’ve found success using the evidence you already have to uncover more.

Even when you’ve reached out to more witnesses, an attorney’s expertise and resources will help you gather more documents. Ultimately, the work you’ve both done will be recognized, but only when your attorney presents the strongest possible case to a judge on your behalf.

According to industry research company Ibis World, 146,151 personal injury attorneys worked in the industry in 2022. So, deciding when to hire an attorney requires a bit of self-awareness on your part.

Consider where you are in terms of your search for evidence and testimony. If you’re early in your search for witnesses, you might want to do some of the work yourself so you have more time to gather the funds for the best lawyer. Alternatively, if the search isn’t going well, or has become too cumbersome, then now might be the time to let go and let a decent attorney take over. When you’re low on funds, hiring an affordable attorney may be more ideal than letting evidence drift away for good.

People who are injured and wronged want to reclaim some of their dignity by doing some of the hard work themselves, then leave the rest to an attorney.

Nonetheless, the evidence for your personal injury case is within your grasp. You’ve already bounced back from an injury and finished the recovery process, going on to push through months of physical therapy and doctor’s appointments. Now, you realized you had the right to pursue a lawsuit, so you know research and communication will uncover the evidence needed to win.

The time to consult with a lawyer will come. Contact an attorney only when you’re ready. You’ll be glad you chose to get a head start by finding missing documents in your pursuit of justice.