Who got the ticket?
Did you know that only under the rarest of circumstances “who received the ticket ” is admissible in your injury trial? Unfortunately rarely can you as the injured party introduce evidence the other driver received a civil infraction (ticket) for causing your accident. The legal rationale for this is the courts have determined juries will rely too much on the opinion of the police officer in determining liability (fault) for the accident as opposed to reaching their own conclusion. Recently while watching a lawyer who is a trial lawyer, but not a board certified civil trial lawyer try a case he caused a mistrial when he asked this of the assisting officer in front of the jury, “who got the ticket” The trial was cancelled because of this error and the injured party will have to now wait months before their case is heard again. Many of the high volume advertising firms you will see on television or on billboards or taxi cabs etc. are not really trial lawyers, but settlement lawyers. Occasionally the insurance company will not settle even an extremely deserving claim for reasons difficult to understand. When this happens the settlement firms are stuck and either try to convince their client to settle for an amount far less than the case is worth, or they actually appear in court which is akin to a fish out of water. Even otherwise competent trial lawyers, but who are not familiar with the rules and law as it pertains to accident cases will make basic mistakes. Likewise you can’t hire a lawyer from Lavely and Whyte for your family law case or a mortgage foreclosure case as it’s not what we do. Similarly, retaining a high volume settlement law firm for your injury case could and probably will result in disastrous results. Please take the time to ask your lawyer about their recent results and recent trial experience. Steve and Matt are proud of their recent results and success. We love to talk about ourselves and please review the client testimonials from just a few of our satisfied clients. We would love the opportunity to add your video to our website. Thanks, Steve