Self-Help Legal Materials for Personal Injury Claims

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss topics related to personal injury law.

Today’s question comes from a listener who asks “is there any place a person involved in a car crash can go to learn to represent themselves without hiring an attorney to help them with their injury claim?”

This is an interesting question. There are all sorts of published medical books, including first aid based medical books, and all sorts of self-help health related books, but few legal self-help books. At least not that we would recommend.

In most public libraries, legal resource materials can be found. Also, there are many legal “forms” for sale for leases, wills, and simple sales agreements.

Lawyers only have to attend law school for 3 years to obtain their degree, and you might think that since that is far fewer than what is required of medical doctor, that it would be easy to summarize key points in a self-help book.

However, the law is an expansive subject. Every state has a different set of laws. Sure, there are similarities between the laws of New Jersey and Indiana. But, extraordinary differences as well. Comparing that to a medical doctor, there is only one human body. A human native to New Zealand may be slightly different genetically speaker from a native of Illinois, but the differences are slight.

We try to provide free general information about the law in these podcasts as well as on our website and in the videos posted on our YouTube page. But general information is no substitute for legal advice.

Trying to think back to my pre-law school days, I am certain that I would not have been able to represent myself in a legal matter as complex as a personal injury claim. I definitely could have read a landlord tenant lease form, and thoughtfully decided whether to sign such a form.

Maybe this is the best answer, we concentrate in personal injury related claims, but if we need help with a tax issue, or a real estate sale, we seek out legal advice from attorneys with expertise in those areas of the law.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you have questions about your legal rights if you get hurt due to the carelessness of another person, or as a result of substandard medical care, or due to a product defect, construction injury, or any other type of personal injury, please give us a call at (219) 736-9700. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth”.