Search Site
Menu

The Keys to Success at Trial… Knowing the Jury Instructions!

As in all successful journeys, you must know your ultimate destination at the beginning of the trip. Handling a personal injury case on behalf of a client is a journey that the client and lawyer take together, sometimes taking 2 to 3 years to complete. To be successful on the client’s behalf, the experienced personal injury trial lawyer knows what they must prove to win before accepting the case.

That knowledge is based on the lawyer being intimately familiar with the jury instructions (and the cases and statutes upon which they are based) that will be given to the jury by the trial judge before it begins deliberating the case. In the typical personal injury case stemming from an automobile crash, the jury instructions include an explanation of what it means to be “negligent” or “contributorily negligent,” which party has “the burden of proof” on certain issues, the level of proof needed to prevail on a particular issue, i.e., “the greater weight of the evidence,” “proximate cause,” a driver’s duty of “ordinary care,” and the “damages” the injured person is entitled to recover.

At the initial consultation, to properly counsel the potential client, the experienced lawyer will determine whether the facts and information known to the potential client satisfy all of the elements needed to have a successful personal injury claim or case. Those elements are whether another party was negligent, whether that other party’s negligence was a cause of the crash, and whether the crash caused the potential client physical injuries. In Virginia, as contributory negligence is a complete defense to a personal injury claim, the lawyer must also consider the potential client’s actions and whether they contributed to the happening to the crash.

The analysis that the lawyer makes, guided necessarily by the jury instructions, is akin to building a house or putting together a puzzle. There are necessary parts or pieces that the lawyer and their team must assemble to have a case that is ultimately resolved in the client’s favor either by settlement or trial. Without a working knowledge of the jury instructions, the lawyer will not know, for certain, whether they have all the facts and information needed to prove the client’s case, nor will they know what information must be obtained, by way of investigation or expert opinion, required to prove the client’s case.

In addition, to ensure that the lawyer has the evidence necessary to prove their client’s case, a working knowledge of the jury instructions enables the lawyer to discuss them comfortably with the jury during the closing argument. “Negligence,” “contributory negligence,” the “the burden of proof” are all terms that are foreign to most non-lawyers. Hearing them read by a judge one time may not be enough for the jurors to fully understand or appreciate what they mean. A lawyer who has worked with the instructions and truly understands and appreciates them is in a good position to help the jury understand them and the issues they must decide. When the jury looks at that particular lawyer for guidance, their client tends to prevail!

OUR RESULTS
  • "$2,000,000.00 Auto Pedestrian Hit by Car / Brain Injury"

  • "$2,000,000.00 Pedestrian Hit By Bus / Broken Foot, Surgery Complications & Partial Choroidal Detachment"

  • "$2,000,000.00 Wrongful Death Settlement"

  • "$1,900,000.00 Pedestrian Hit By Truck / Fractured Pelvis & Multiple Surgeries"

  • "$1,500,000.00 Auto Accident / Wrongful Death"

  • "$1,200,000.00 Auto Accident / Broken Neck, Punctured Lung"

  • "$847,500.00 Dangerous Dog Bite / Facial Injury, Scarring"

  • "$600,000.00 Tractor Trailer Crash / Neck Injury, requiring surgery"

  • "$595,000.00 (Jury Verdict) Auto Accident / Broken Foot"

  • "$546,905.00 Auto Accident / Neck injury, Herniated Disc"

Meet Our Attorneys
Our Awards & Memberships
  • Best Personal injury lawyers in Alexandria
  • NTL-40-under-40
Client Reviews
  • google
    5.0/5.0

    Justin Curcio helped my father with a John vs Doe accident. He was always available and always answered our questions in depth and extensively. He made it very obvious that he really cares for his clients and always wants what’s best for them and a...

    Read more

    Begum Kucuk

  • google
    5.0/5.0

    I am so grateful that Tom Curico was my lawyer in a recent injury case. His persistence & due diligence went well above my expectations leaving me with a settlement I was not expecting. His attention to detail and thoroughness made the best outcome...

    Read more

    MICHELE SNODDY

  • google
    5.0/5.0

    The Curcio Law Firm (particularly Tom Curcio and Justin Curcio) did an excellent job of representing me in my personal injury case. I was severely injured in a car/bike accident. They are smart, experienced in personal injury matters, easy to work wi...

    Read more

    milton whitfield

  • google
    5.0/5.0

    Don’t look twice in your search in Virginia for an attorney. I did a few google searches for a lawyer after I got rear ended by 2 cars and suffered injuries. Other firms weren’t as responsive or were more focused on gloating about their credentia...

    Read more

    Kevin Hernandez

  • google
    5.0/5.0

    Rakin from Curcio Law took my case for personal injury and I must say that it was a pleasure. All it took to initiate the process was one phone call where he asked detailed questions about the incident and that is it really. I made no effort to follo...

    Read more

    Tanu Garg

See all reviews
Contact us

Quick Contact Form