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Personal Injury Claim Can Be Ruined by “Little White Lies”

If you’ve hired a Las Vegas personal injury lawyer to handle your injury claim, don’t hold anything back. Tell your lawyer everything. It is crucial. Why? Because if you hold back relevant information or decide to tell a “little white lie” about the cause of your injury or anything else, it could wreck your personal injury case.

Insurance defense lawyers look for anything to try and discredit your case. Even the smallest variance in your testimony or description of what happened can leave an opening for the other side to try and portray you as someone not to be believed. If it is determined you did fabricate a fact or made an intentional misstatement, the judge can order a “Falsus In Uno” which means the jury can disregard a portion, or all, of your testimony.

What I commonly encounter are clients who say, “I wasn’t lying, I just didn’t think that fact or tidbit was important.” It’s understandable, especially since even the smallest piece of information can be manipulated by a defense lawyer. This is why you need to leave it all on the table with your lawyer. Don’t hold anything back, even if it is something random like a gym membership or an unpaid department store credit card.

You might feel a little uneasy about sharing personal information with your lawyer, especially at the beginning when you haven’t really developed a strong relationship. Rest assured, your information is safe. The law provides “attorney-client” privilege which means that whatever you share with your lawyer remains between you and your lawyer.

Being upfront and completely honest with your lawyer will not only help prevent your case from getting torpedoed in court, but it can actually strengthen it. How? Well, the more information you provide to your lawyer, the more avenues are available for your lawyer to build your case and ensure there are no holes available to defense lawyers during settlement negotiations or at trial.

So remember – honesty and transparency are always the best policy.