4 Ways a Personal Injury Lawsuit Can Impact a Family

There are some different times you may wish to pursue a personal injury lawsuit. For instance, maybe a defective product harmed you. You will want to take the manufacturer to court.

Perhaps you fell in a store, and you want to sue because they did not have adequate signage. Maybe you want to sue a doctor because they made a mistake and hurt you. There are lots more situations where a personal injury lawsuit makes sense.

However, when you take this action, it’s not always easy on the rest of your family. Let’s look at some possible results if you decide to move forward.

You Might Cause a Family Feud

Maybe you decide to pursue a personal injury lawsuit against a family member. You might bring a lawsuit against:

• A brother or sister
• An aunt, uncle, or cousin

For example, maybe you hurt yourself on your cousin’s property because he was negligent and had unsafe conditions. You have medical bills, and he refuses to pay for them.

When this sort of thing happens, you don’t want to bring a lawsuit against your relative, but you might feel like you have no choice. If your cousin or some other family member will not assist you financially, you may have no alternative but to use the legal system to go after them.

This will force your various family members to choose sides. This sort of thing can cause a familial rift that can go on for decades in some instances.

You Can Lose a Lot of Money

Another way a personal injury lawsuit can impact your family is that you might lose money rather than gain it. That might happen if:

• You agree to pay a lawyer an hourly or flat rate.
• You lose the lawsuit.

With personal injury lawsuits, you should usually try to set up a contingency payment plan. If you agree to a lawyer’s hourly rate or a flat rate, and then they lose your lawsuit, that means you get nothing, and you still have to compensate them.

You can end up with not just hospital bills, physical therapy bills, and lost wages, but now you also have to pay the lawyer as you agreed. You might lose your house or drain your savings this way.

You Might Face Depression if You Lose

If you go into a personal injury lawsuit expecting to win, but then you lose, it can have crushing psychological effects. You might experience depression, and you may have to see a therapist to try and get over it. You might feel like the system cheated you if the suit does not go your way.

That’s hard on you, but your family as well. If you have a spouse or partner, they still have to deal with household upkeep. While you struggle to get back on track, they must prepare meals, drive the kids around, keep the house clean, and all those other daily tasks.

Whether you decide to pursue a lawsuit by contacting lawfirms in Texas or California, you should prepare yourself mentally for a possible loss. It’s great if you win since you recoup lost wages, medical bills, and so forth, but you’re not in this by yourself.

You need to be ready to accept defeat and return to your life so all the pressure does not fall on the other adults with whom you live. You might experience elation after a personal injury lawsuit, or the opposite could happen. Try to prepare yourself for either eventuality before you undertake this endeavor.

You Create Family Pressure

If you go ahead with a personal injury lawsuit, you might have a good reason to do it, but it won’t be easy for your other family members.

That’s because it will take up a lot of your time, as you have to appear in court and attend strategy sessions with your lawyer. While you are doing all that, if you have a spouse or partner, they may have to take care of the kids.

If they are working, it is difficult for them since they will still have to drive the children to sporting events or after-school activities. They will still have to cook dinners, clean the house, etc.

Hopefully, your lawsuit will not take up so much of your time and energy that you cannot attend to some of these other things. If it does, it’s going to complicate your other family members’ lives for as long as it lasts.