Lawyers manage personal injury cases daily. Each personal injury lawyer will review and attach the research, development, and resolution of the case according to their expertise. Every personal injury case has the same basic elements, and the personal injury lawyer will focus on resolving these finer points first in each case. Here we will discuss a personal injury case timeline according to a personal injury lawyer.
Personal Injury Case Timeline
Choosing an Attorney
Any time you have sustained a personal injury, you will want to consult with a personal injury lawyer. The lawyer will start finding out more information regarding your case and determine fault, injuries sustained, duties and liabilities, and who is responsible for repaying you for any damages sustained in the loss. If there are other people’s insurance companies involved in the case, the lawyer will reach out to them and work towards getting compensation for you for your personal injury. The lawyer will also ask you to keep track of all of your medical bills, expenses, and other incidental bills related to your management of this personal injury and loss in your life.
Formal Accident Investigation
Next, the lawyer will review any formal accident reports made by the police or other official documents available. The investigation will be well underway, and any witnesses to the loss will be contacted at that time. If there is an accident scene, it will be reviewed, and any photos of the loss will be uncovered at that time. If necessary, the accident might be recreated by an expert, and the results will be submitted to the lawyer if an accident specialist is called for this service.
Preliminary Settlement Negotiations
Next, the lawyer will determine what the personal injury claim and case are worth. The lawyer will then talk to the insurance company and present a preliminary demand for settlement. If the insurance company does not accept the reasonable demand presented by the lawyer, then it may be necessary to file a lawsuit for damages against the insurance company or the persons responsible for the losses in that case. Most lawyers are prepared to settle the personal injury case, manage negotiations, or go to trial. Even if the personal injury lawyer is completely confident regarding going to trial, although most cases do settle well before this juncture. Trials are time-consuming, take time in the already overburdened courts, and can be expensive to maintain for all parties – but personal injury lawyers will go to court if that is necessary.
Preparation of the Lawsuit
While the lawyer is working on negotiation with the at-fault parties to a personal injury case, the lawyer will also be discussing the status of the case with the client. You should be able to call your lawyer and get an update as to the negotiations, what was offered, what was counter-offered, if anything, and how the negotiations are proceeding up to that point. The lawyer will work hard to negotiate the case for you while at the same time will also be gearing up to prepare to go to court for you on the case as well. The reason for preparation for the court is that often, there is no way to settle a case without going to court. If the personal injury is for a substantial injury, and the person at fault or the at-fault party’s insurance company will not settle within a reasonable boundary of compensation, that may be the signal to your lawyer that there is no other choice than to go to court.
The preparation of a lawsuit needs to happen quickly because there may be a limit on the amount of time to make a claim or bring a lawsuit on a case. This is a reference to the statute of limitations, which will vary for different cases. This means that a claim or case cannot be brought at any time in the far-off future. There is a certain number of years where the claim or case needs to be adjudicated before the timeframe or window to do so will expire. An experienced lawyer will understand the statute of limitations for each type of case being reviewed and managed and will be able to advise you as to how much time you have to make a claim and bring a case to court within those time boundaries.
Questions and Writing to the Other Parties
The lawyer will continually write questions and send them to the other parties at fault and responsible for your personal injury. These questions will be asking to have more clarity regarding your case, what happened, the duties that may have been breached, liabilities of all of the parties, and the result of any breached duties of care that may have caused your injuries. The parties at fault are the defendants, and they have around 30 days to respond to the questions once a lawsuit has commenced. The defendants may have questions to send back to the lawyer, who will call you to ask you for more information regarding these issues.
Going to Trial
If the case is going to trial, the lawyer will need to review many aspects of the case in preparation for formal legal proceedings. The lawyer may next need to:
- Request a formal medical examination
- Have meetings with the other lawyers of the defendant to determine more facts.
- Receive more statements regarding the facts of the case.
- Hire expert witnesses to present theories for the case.
- Conduct depositions (on both sides).
- Ask for additional settlement conditions for the case.
If the case goes to trial, there will be a court date, and the trial will occur at that scheduled time in the local court system. Comprehensive trials can last for weeks to several months, and at any time during the trial process, either side may agree to a settlement offered by the at-fault party or his insurance company.
Resolving the Case and Compensation Received
Once the lawyer receives a suitable and acceptable settlement package for the personal injury you have suffered, the case will be resolved. The financial reward of damages for your personal injury loss will come to you as a court-ordered lump sum from the at-fault party’s insurance company in most cases. The previously agreed to percentage of lawyer fees will be deducted from this final settlement, and the case will be resolved at that time. Therefore, it is important to tell your lawyer everything needed when the lawyer asks you for information because once a case is settled, it is considered the final payment. It cannot be opened up to be adjudicated again in the future.
When you have a personal injury case, it is not the time to leave the result up to chance. You need an experienced attorney at your side to help you in this situation and to get you the money that you deserve in your case. Just give us a call today at the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm if you have been injured in a personal injury claim. We are here for you when you need us, and we will give you peace of mind to get you the money you deserve every time.
