Just because you have suffered significant injuries because of the negligence of a doctor and filed a medical malpractice case, you need not have a negative outlook on your life. Many victims easily succumb to depression and start believing that their disabilities are going to ruin their lives.
Just because you have suffered significant injuries because of the negligence of a doctor and filed a medical malpractice case, you need not have a negative outlook on your life. Many victims easily succumb to depression and start believing that their disabilities are going to ruin their lives.
Even though you are required to convince the jury at trial that you have suffered significant injuries, it does not mean you have to exaggerate your condition or be defeatist about it. In fact, there have been instances where victims have developed more positive outlook in life after their injuries.
A Victim Who is Positive and Motivated
Here is a victim who has been seriously injured because of the negligence of a doctor, and the defense lawyer asks him during the deposition, if he is disabled. The deposition is a question and answer session held under oath much before the trial. It is held in the attorney’s office, but it is the same as if you are testifying at trial. At such a deposition the defense attorney asks the plaintiff, whether he consider himself to be disabled.
The victim said that he never considers himself to be disabled. He considers himself a human being unable to do certain activities that he was able to do before the incident. He said that he enjoys playing basketball, he enjoys playing sports with his kids, but now because of his injuries he can no longer do any of that.
The plaintiff then tells the defense lawyer, that if he prefers using the label “disabled”, he can go right ahead. However, the victim maintains that he is an optimistic person, who is motivated to push through his injuries and continue living daily life even though it is now restricted and he cannot do some of the activities he once used to do. The plaintiff tells the lawyer he simply cannot just crawl up into a corner just because he is unable to do all these activities. He cannot wait around for this lawsuit to be resolved and he has to continue living his life.
Having a Carefree Attitude is not Going to Hurt Your Case
Such an attitude is a salient example for injured victims, who feel helpless and depressed about their situation in life. Here is a person who is significantly “disabled”, as he cannot do many of the activities he used to enjoy doing before the incident but he has this positive and sunny outlook. He was saying to the defense lawyer that he did not care if the lawyer or anyone else called him disabled, even though in reality he could not do certain things like all healthy people can.
This attitude may just sway the jury even more in his favor.
Not Succumbing to a Victim’s Mentality
However, this victim had the desire and motivation to want to improve every single day, which was remarkable. Therefore, having a positive attitude is not going to harm your medical malpractice case in any way, as long as you show the jury that you cannot do many things that you were able to do before you suffered the injuries.
