Personal Injury Lawsuits in South Carolina

Experienced Help For The Pain Of Personal Injury in South Carolina

If you or someone you know has been seriously injured, you may be experiencing chronic pain, frustration with insurance companies, and a mountain of bills. You and your family may be devastated, frightened about the future, or even grieving the loss of a loved one. Contact our Indian Land & Lancaster personal injury lawyer today.

At David Blackwell Law, we offer experienced and compassionate legal help for clients and their families who have experienced an auto or truck accident; injury due to a defective product or drug; a slip and fall on someone else’s property; and other injuries.

Personal Injury Resources

How can I increase the value of my personal injury case?

How can I increase the value of my personal injury case?

Your Rights if you have Suffered A Personal Injury

As personal injury lawyers, our goal is to help you understand your rights and recover as much compensation to which you may be entitled under the law. This may include:

Existing or anticipated future medical bills
Loss of income or earning power
Pain and suffering

Permanent physical impairment
Emotional trauma
Funeral expenses

Our experienced team knows how to obtain the evidence needed to establish the full value of your personal injury case.

Why Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Our team will make sure you have the resources you need to face the crisis created by a personal injury. Insurance companies may be pressing you for a settlement. Medical providers may be threatening to turn over bills to collections. Our knowledgeable attorneys and staff will help you:

Make the Most Out of Your Personal Injury Consultation

Let’s face it: sound legal counsel is rarely ever free.

Because most individuals make a significant investment to work with a qualified, trustworthy attorney, making the most of the time spent together is vital. A lot can get accomplished in an initial consultation if you follow these four tips.

Tip 1: Treat Time Respectfully

We’ve all heard the expression “time is money,” and that certainly applies here. Check out the following ways in which handling your time wisely can impact your consultation:

It’s important that you seek legal advice as soon as possible. Every state has its own limitations and time constraints in which a claim must be filed. Waiting until the last minute to schedule an initial consultation hinders, not helps, your situation.

Try to arrive early to your consultation by at least 10 minutes. It’s important you make a good first impression, and no one likes being kept waiting. Arriving early also has other benefits, like allowing you to clear your head and feel less rushed, and giving you plenty of time to fill out initial paperwork at the office.

If you can’t be early, at least show up on time. Being late means you are cheating yourself out of the full consultation time, and in some cases may mean you have to reschedule altogether.

Tip 2: Be Prepared

Taking time to prepare your thoughts and desired outcomes for your claim before you are sitting across the table from an attorney helps ensure you cover as much ground as possible during your consultation. You can be prepared by:

Having all case-related documents with you at the meeting and organized in such a fashion that you can easily find what you are looking for during the conversation.
Preparing all your questions in advance so that if you lose your train of thought, you can refer to your list of questions and leave knowing you didn’t overlook anything important.
Asking questions so that when you leave your consultation, you feel confident in your understanding of all the attorney has discussed with you about your case.

Tip 3: Consider the Benefit of Coming Alone

Even though you may feel tempted to bring along a friend or family member to your consultation for extra courage and moral support, consider what having another person present in your consultation will do to your case.

Having a third person in your consultation with you may waive the attorney-client privilege which exists to protect conversations between you and your attorney concerning all matters of your case.
Coming alone helps you to speak more freely and feel less inhibited to reveal the details of your situation, and it keeps your consultation confidentiality in tact.
If coming alone completely intimidates you, bring someone you trust and ask them to simply wait outside in the lobby while you proceed with the actual consultation yourself. Sometimes, just knowing a familiar face is right outside the door can give you that confidence and support you need during difficult conversations.

Tip 4: Maintain Realistic Expectations

When you go to your consultation, remember that this is only the initial step toward seeking a positive outcome for your case. It won’t be the end-all, be-all in this long process, but rather a crucial starting point in determining what further legal action may be needed.

Realize that you may not have time to discuss everything on your prepared list of questions and concerns in the allotted time for your consultation.
It’s better for your attorney to take his time discussing the details of your situation than to rush through it all for the sake of cramming everything into that first consultation to be able to “check it off the list.”
View your consultation as valuable time spent creating a roadmap of where you are, where you want to be when things are all said and done, and how you and your attorney can work together to arrive there.
Be sure you leave the meeting with a list of the next-steps you need to take.

4 Ways to Destroy Your Personal Injury Case on Social Media

Social media has become a huge part of our lives in today’s culture. With Facebook alone boasting over 1.4 billion active users, it’s impossible to ignore the influence it has on many aspects of everyday life. Although Facebook (and other platforms) is used as a sounding board, a place where folks can journal their day, brag about their workouts, and display photos of their delicious meals, it is NOT the place to talk about your personal injury case. Here’s a list of how social media can ruin your personal injury case.

Posting details about your accident – When you’re involved in an accident, do not post photos of your accident, your injuries, or any other photos involving the accident. If you post photos or comments about your accident, the opposing side could use your comments and photos to try to poke holes in your case. Whatever you post online could be viewed by the other side—very easily if your privacy settings are lenient. The best practice is to avoid posting anything related to your accident on social media. If you can’t decide what’s related and what’s not—then don’t post anything at all.

Posting photos of yourself – Most people don’t post photos of themselves just lying around the house, they post photos of themselves doing something fun or having a good time. If you are suffering from a back injury, it would be unwise to post a photo of yourself water skiing, sitting on the bleachers at a baseball game, or playing in a golf tournament. Although you might be in severe pain after such activities—the photo has already shown the other side how capable you are of doing things requiring physical activity.

Playing Farmville all day – If you claim that your injury prevents you from performing your sedentary job, but you play Farmville/Candy Crush/Texas HoldEM all day, the other side is going to yell bull. Many of these pitfalls can be avoided by simply trying to think like the other side would be thinking.

Complaining about your job – If you are filing a claim based on a work injury and you have a history of complaining about your job or boss, the other side may view your claim as an attempt to get out of your job, or to punish your employer.

What you should do:

Follow David Blackwell Law on Facebook to receive updates, informative blog posts, read our newsletter, etc.

Google yourself. The insurance adjusters will. You need to know what the other side is reading about you.

Increase privacy settings on your social media accounts. This doesn’t prevent you from any trouble—in a recent Florida case, a woman had to sign a form granting permission for the other side to access her Facebook profile.

Treat your social media comments and photos as if you were sending them directly to the other side. They will be monitoring your accounts, and you should act accordingly. Best practice: don’t post.

Monday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday	8:00 am - 1:00 pm

Monday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday	8:00 am - 1:00 pm