The Importance of Honesty (2024)

Whether you are a plaintiff, a defendant, or a witness, the best thing you can do in any legal dispute is be rigorously honest. This is true for three main reasons.
First and foremost is that, especially in our age of Facebook and Twitter, very few things in anybody’s life stay truly private. Lawyers are generally pretty skilled at uncovering facts, and our powers in that area have only grown in this wired, quick to share era. Standing on the facts is, therefore, more important than ever. If you only tell the truth, you don’t have to worry about what anybody tries to dig up on you. This will make your case far lessstressfulfor you.

The second reason sticking to the truth is so important has to do with juries. Juries are human, and we humans tend to prefer humble and honest folks to game players and fibbers. As a plaintiff, defendant, or witness, your effectiveness rests in large part on your credibility in what you tell people involved in your case. The truth shall set you free in this area.

This premium on honesty definitely includes telling the truth to your medical providers, who must rely on patient histories for a surprisingly big part of their plans and prescriptions. In the words of one recent medical study:

The patient’s history emerged as the key element in formulating diagnosis either alone (approximately 20% of all diagnoses), in combination with the patient’s examination (another 40%,approximately), or in addition to the basic tests with or without the physical examination (33%). [E]xamination or basic tests alone were very seldom helpful.

The third huge reason for being extremely truthful in your legal case is that doing so will help you and us, your Portland injury lawyers, develop the best possible strategy and tactics. If we all understand the basic facts of your injury, loss, or accident, we can help you formulate and walk the straightest, fastest road to a great legal outcome.

We also keep all this very much in mind when thinking about those on our clients’ opposing side. Figuring out how honest (or dishonest) the other parties are is always a major factor indeveloping strong presentations and favorable outcomes in legal disputes.