If you’ve been injured in a serious San Francisco vehicle accident, you’ll no doubt have questions about the process of your case being heard in court. There are many different types of evidence that you might gather immediately after the accident has occurred, such as photos, videos, property damage, records for your vehicle and more.
One other way to help show the story of how the accident happened is to turn to eyewitness testimony. Your experienced personal injury lawyer should be prepared to thoroughly investigate the crash and talk to witnesses if you’ve not already done so. An objective perspective on the accident is one of the most powerful things that an eyewitness can bring to the case.
You must be able to show that the other driver was negligent in some way, such as driving distracted, failing to obey traffic rules, running through a red light or stop sign or speeding. Witnesses may be able to give a perspective on how one of the drivers was negligent and contributed to the accident that you might not have had while you were in your car.
Witnesses who are not associated with either driver have no vested interest in the outcome of a claim and are unbiased, meaning that their accounts can provide significant support to the case. The impact of witness credibility, however, cannot be underestimated. The court will only be able to value the insight of a witness when they are perceived as credible.
Some of the factors that can influence the perception of witness credibility include the presence of a criminal record, whether the witness was caught lying about anything, the vantage point of the witness at the time of the accident, the consistency of witness statements, and the plausibility of a testimony made by the witness. In all of these circumstances, it’s powerful to have the support of an experienced San Francisco car accident attorney.