Personal injury cases can be very stressful and are not for the light-hearted. They can take a long time, can cause a lot of anxiety, and may require a person to attend court and give testimony in front of a judge and jury. With that said, personal injury cases can also be very beneficial and can give a person an opportunity to receive compensation for injuries or damages that have been sustained by them. These cases are very complex and are not easily understood, which is why we are presenting this article to you.
Yes, in this article, we are going to tell you how a personal injury case is settled, step-by-step. We hope that you will enjoy reading this article and that you will leave any thoughts below in the comments section!
Here is how a personal injury case is settled, simplified so anybody can understand it!
The Accident Itself
The first stage in a personal injury case is the accident itself. This is when the claimant sustains the injury. There is an almost infinite number of ways a person can be injured, but for the purposes of this article, we will focus on car accidents. After our claimant has had a car accident, the police and ambulance services will arrive, and if necessary, they will be required to go to the hospital. The accident is the catalyst for the legal proceedings that follow after it. If the accident is not deemed serious enough, then legal proceedings will not follow.
Acquisition of Evidence
Following the accident, the person who intends on making a claim should acquire as much evidence as they can. If they do not have evidence, they may have a hard time convincing an attorney to take on their case. Evidence varies from person to person; some may only have a photograph others may have video. Generally, the stronger the evidence, the stronger the chance is that you will receive compensation and that your case will be taken on by an attorney, so focus heavily on acquiring the strongest evidence that you can.
Contacting an Attorney
Once you have what you believe to be sufficient evidence, then you can go ahead and contact an attorney. Your attorney, according to the Sawaya Law Firm, a team of trained lawyers, should fight for you to receive compensation that will enable you to live the life that you led before your accident. You should aim to find the best attorney that you can and the most professional. Poor legal representation can be a detriment to your case. Your case is, as they say, only as strong as your lawyer. Equally, the strongest lawyer cannot make a weak case strong.
Investigation
An attorney, after you have contacted them, will likely conduct their own investigation into your case to ensure its validity and to ensure that you are telling the truth about it. The investigation that they conduct may be very detailed, which is why honesty is important. Do not exaggerate parts of your case to make it sound more appealing, because in all likelihood, your lawyer’s own personal investigation will expose your lies, and because of that, they may flat out refuse to represent you anymore. Tell the truth and nothing but the truth, otherwise, your case may suffer.
Notification
After your lawyer has taken on your case, they will notify the person who you are claiming against and give them time to find a lawyer. The notification process is usually quite quick and can be settled in up to fourteen days. Notifying the person may be complicated, however, if you do not know their name and have to track them down. Even so, it is possible and your lawyer will hire an investigator to find them for you. The notification process, once complete, will give way to either court or settlement, which we will move onto next.
Court Settlement, or an Out of Court Settlement
You may settle with the person in court, or out of court. Out of court settlements can yield a lot of compensation, because the person may want to spare themselves the trouble of going to court and having to pay an attorney. This is quite common. You may need to go to court, however, if they do not want to pay for an out of court settlement. Court settlements can be much higher than out of court settlements, if you have the evidence, and if your case is strong enough.
In this article, we hope to have told you all about the claim process after a personal injury. Being injured then having to go to court can be very traumatic, so we do suggest that you take your time to recover before you go ahead with legal actions. Thank you for reading.