Absolutely. The obvious one is that you might have to spend money as a plaintiff. Some personal injury cases are handled on a “contingency fee,” which generally means that the lawyers take their fees from any recovery, rather than requiring the plaintiff to pay the fees up front. Some of these arrangements require the lawyers to absorb all of the expenses (such as expert fees), while others require the plaintiff to share some of those expenses.

Beyond any expense, however, being a plaintiff can be quite burdensome. You’ll likely have to spend a lot of time reviewing court papers, meeting with the lawyers, and participating in the discovery process (where you gather and provide documents to the other side, responds to their written questions or interrogatories, and participate in your deposition (where the other side gets to ask you questions under oath).

In addition to taking a lot of your time, the questions might feel quite intrusive as the other side asks questions about your personal, private life.