When we investigate a serious car accident, we're rarely looking for one specific document that will make the case.
We're trying to understand everything that happened.
Sometimes, though, you find one.
Tom Pope remembers a head-on collision case where a lab report buried in the other driver's medical records changed the direction of the case.
The insurance adjuster hadn't found it.
The defense attorney hadn't found it.
Even the other driver's family didn't know about it.
We found it because we kept looking.
The Head-On Collision Was Only the Beginning
Our client was injured when another driver caused a head-on collision.
The other driver was injured too and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Once Hasty Pope took the case, the investigation began.
Of course, we obtained our client's medical records. Those records were necessary to understand the injuries, treatment and what the collision had changed in our client's life.
But we didn't stop there.
We also requested the defendant driver's medical records from her treatment after the crash.
That's where things got interesting.
The Lab Report Nobody Else Had Found
Buried in those records was a lab report.
It indicated that the defendant driver had a controlled substance in her system when she was treated after the collision.
That was potentially significant evidence.
What Tom remembers almost as clearly as finding the report is who apparently hadn't found it.
The insurance adjuster hadn't.
The defense attorney hadn't.
According to Tom, even the defendant's parents weren't aware of it.
We were.
That didn't happen because someone handed us the answer.
It happened because we requested the records and went through them.
Why a Canton Car Accident Attorney Has to Investigate Beyond the Obvious
Most people probably imagine a car accident investigation beginning with the police report, photographs and witness statements.
It does.
But those aren't necessarily the only places where the story lives.
An experienced Canton Car Accident Attorney should be asking what other evidence exists and where it might be found.
Medical records can matter for reasons beyond proving a client's injuries. Vehicle data can matter. Cell phone records can matter. Surveillance footage can matter.
We've learned that seemingly ordinary documents can contain extraordinary evidence.
This case was a perfect example.
We Took the Case to Trial
Finding the lab report wasn't the end of the work.
We still had to build the case.
And ultimately, we tried it.
The lab report became one of the pieces of evidence we were able to use at trial, and the jury returned a strong verdict for our injured client.
That's an important distinction.
Finding evidence and knowing what to do with it are two different things.
After decades of litigation and trial work, Tom and Jon have seen cases turn on evidence that might have looked insignificant when someone first opened the file.
Sometimes it's video.
Sometimes it's a medical record.
Sometimes it's a witness.
Sometimes it's one line buried in hundreds of pages of documents.
You don't necessarily know which one it's going to be when the investigation begins.
That's why you look.
We've Seen This Happen in Other Hasty Pope Cases
This wasn't an isolated lesson.
In another case, a tractor trailer driver blamed our clients after a rear-end collision.
We kept investigating.
Video from inside the truck showed the driver looking down toward his phone, texting and scrolling before the crash.
In another company-driver case, we investigated the employee's driving history and learned he'd been involved in two other recent crashes he caused and had accumulated five speeding tickets.
Different cases. Different evidence.
Same lesson.
Don't assume the first version of the story is the whole story.
The Insurance Company Has the Same Opportunity to Investigate
That's another part of this particular case that has stuck with Tom.
The insurance company had professionals working on the claim.
There was an adjuster.
There was a defense attorney.
Yet the lab report that became important to the case apparently hadn't been identified by either of them.
We don't point that out to suggest we're going to uncover a hidden document in every case. We won't.
Every case is different.
The point is what happens when you approach an investigation believing there may still be something you haven't found.
That's how we approach serious cases at Hasty Pope.
What Does a Canton Car Accident Attorney Look for After a Serious Crash?
Evidence.
Not just the evidence that's easy to find.
The evidence that answers the questions that still don't make sense.
What was the other driver doing?
Was the driver distracted?
Was alcohol or another substance involved?
Does video exist?
Are there witnesses we haven't spoken with?
Was the driver working for a company?
Does that company have information we need?
What do the medical records show?
What aren't we seeing yet?
Those questions aren't a checklist. Depending on the collision, half of them may not matter.
But experience teaches you to keep asking questions until the pieces fit.
That's part of what someone should expect when hiring a Canton Car Accident Attorney to handle a serious injury case.
The Devil Really Is in the Details
Tom ended his video about this case with a phrase that's been around forever:
The devil is in the details.
There's a reason lawyers still say it.
This case wasn't changed by some dramatic confession.
It was a lab report.
A document sitting inside a larger set of medical records.
Someone had to request it.
Someone had to read it.
Someone had to recognize why it mattered.
And eventually, someone had to present it at trial.
That's the part of personal injury law people rarely see.
At Hasty Pope, we investigate, uncover the evidence, build the case and prepare to take it as far as necessary.
Sometimes the evidence everyone needs to see is sitting right there in the details.