Can Juries Tell If You’re Faking an Injury?

By the time your injury case gets to court, you might be fully healed from your injuries. In such instances, will juries think plaintiffs are faking their injuries? What can you do to ensure the jury does not suspect you of lying about your injuries?

If a jury thinks you’re faking an injury, it will likely be because there is insufficient evidence to prove your injury exists or existed, if you’re fully healed. In such cases, juries might decide that plaintiffs have not meet the standard of proof and find defendants not liable for their damages. To prove to a jury that your injuries did exist even if they have since healed, you will need medical evidence. This will require you to go to the hospital immediately after you are injured because of negligence and get any additional treatment advised by doctors and specialists. An experienced Fayetteville personal injury attorney can ensure that you give consistent statements and get the medical care you need while gathering evidence of the defendant’s negligence to prove their liability for your damages.

What if a Jury Thinks You’re Faking an Injury?

When assigned to an injury case, a jury has a job to do. That job is to review the available facts and evidence to decide a defendant’s liability for a plaintiff’s damages. With the main focus being the defendant’s liability, a victim might not consider their own actions, leasing a jury to suspect they might be faking their injuries.

First of all, faking an injury to collect compensation is a fool’s errand. When making a claim for injury, your medical records will be heavily scrutinized. Any indication that you are faking an injury or being disingenuous about the severity of your injuries or their cause could be seen as a suspicious by the jury assigned to your case. Because of the risks involved in doing so, faking an injury is never wise.

That said, victims do not have to intentionally fake or misrepresent their injuries in order for a jury to become suspicious. For example, suppose a plaintiff engaged in physical activity that would be dangerous or impossible because of their injuries, and the defendant has photographic proof of them doing so. In that case, the jury might not be convinced of the plaintiff’s injuries. Furthermore, if there is insufficient evidence to prove that a plaintiff sustained certain injuries, they might not meet the standard of proof in their case, which will most likely be a preponderance of the evidence. This means that victims will be tasked with proving that it is more likely than not that a defendant caused their injuries.

If you cannot meet the standard of proof as a plaintiff, whether because the jury believes you are faking or exaggerating your injuries or because you have not submitted enough evidence to meet the standard of proof in your case, you may not recover any compensation.

How to Prove to a Jury You’re Not Faking an Injury

Whether or not a victim is faking an injury might be an issue, depending on the case and the available evidence. To ensure you and your lawyer do not face any hiccups on this front, there are several things you can do. This includes documenting your immediate injuries and long-term medical treatment and looking at what you say when giving statements to ensure there are no inconsistencies.

Document Your Immediate Injuries

A jury would have no reason to suspect a victim of faking their injuries when presented with ample medical records confirming the victim’s injuries. Because of this, it is necessary to go to the hospital immediately after being hurt because of negligence. When you do this, medical professionals will assess and diagnose your injuries and give you the immediate treatment you need. Those records from your initial visit to the emergency room can set the foundation for information about your injuries and can be used as evidence in your case to prove that you sustained certain injuries because of negligence.

Document Your Medical Treatment

Going to the hospital one time will likely not be enough to prove to a jury that you are not faking or exaggerating your injuries. Instead, you will likely have to get regular treatment, depending on the severity of your injuries. For example, if you require immediate emergency surgery because of a back injury, you might also require long-term physical therapy. If you do not engage in physical therapy when advised to by doctors, your failure to get the necessary treatment could be used against you in your case and indicate to the jury that your injuries are not as severe as you have claimed. Having any gaps in your medical treatment whatsoever could also give the defendant room to question the seriousness of your injuries and create doubt in the minds of jurors. With ample and detailed medical records regarding your treatment in the weeks and months following an accident, you will have a greater chance of convincing the jury of your need for compensation.

Give Consistent Statements

Immediately after an accident, you might be asked to give statements about the event to police officers, insurance companies, and others. When giving these statements, it is of the utmost importance that you are honest and accurate. If you change part of your story, the jury assigned to your case might question why your statements are inconsistent and if the reason for the inconsistencies is that the defendant is not liable. An experienced lawyer can review the sequence of events of the accident with you before you give any statements to ensure that all statements are consistent and in line with one another.

Mike

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