Three Risks Of Being Dishonest About The Extent Of Your Injury

After you hire a personal injury attorney to prepare a case after you've been injured, you may start to think about how to get more money. One way that some people are tempted in this regard is to exaggerate the nature of their injuries. Doing so might be tempting, especially if you imagine fooling the court and, perhaps, being awarded several hundreds of thousands of dollars more. However, this is a poor strategy that has a low chance of succeeding—and that may also give you an extremely guilty conscience. Here are three risks of being dishonest about the extent of your injury.

You May Not Be Awarded Any Damages

If your personal injury attorney is talking about you being awarded $50,000 in damages, you might start to think how exaggerating the extent of the injury could raise this number to $100,000 or more. What you're not thinking about, however, is what happens if you get caught in your lie. The other party's attorneys will almost certainly hire private investigators to observe you without your knowledge, and if it's apparent that you're faking your injury, the entire case could get dismissed and leave you with no money.

You Could Face Charges

Exaggerating about an injury is often seen as an example of fraud, and your state's legal system doesn't take kindly to fraud of any type. Having your personal injury case dismissed and you being left without any damages may be the least of your concerns. If it's clear to the court that you've dramatically exaggerated your claim, thus wasting the court's time in a deliberate attempt to be misleading, there's a chance that fraud charges could possibly by filed against you.

Your Reputation May Be Harmed

A personal injury case that gets thrown out and has fraud charges associated with it will get you publicity, but not the type that you want. Instead of, perhaps, seeming like the hero in the local media for being awarded a large settlement because of the negligence of a company or other organization, you could be seen as someone who deliberately tried to scheme the system in order to get paid. This can dramatically damage your reputation, which is especially problematic if you live in a smaller community where word travels fast between people. It's always best to be fully honest with your attorney about the extent of your injury and trust that he or she will fight hard for you.

For more information, talk to companies like Terrel DoRemus & Associates.


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