You were injured in an auto accident. You received medical treatment, and now the bills are piling up, the insurance companies are at odds, and you don’t know where to turn for help.
In many cases, as we’ve said before, the most difficult part of any personal injury case is knowing what to expect throughout the trial. There are many different outcomes that can potentially occur and we want to help guide you through the process.
If you’re thinking of moving forward with an auto injury case, we’re here to help you decide the best course of action. Send us a note today and we’ll walk you through the process.
In this blog post, we want to walk you through the steps of an auto injury case so you can better understand what comes next if you move forward with us as your attorneys.
1. We Investigate Your Claim & Inspect Your Medical Records.
The most important aspect of your case, when it comes to your injury, is ensuring that you receive proper medical treatment. If you were badly injured, you probably received treatment immediately. When you first come to us, we will want to look through your medical records and ask you as many questions as possible regarding your claim. This will help us establish a timeline and determine the best course of action.
2. Potential Settlement
If you select us as your attorney, most likely we will push for a settlement before filing a lawsuit. The reason for this is that most auto injury cases never make it to trial; they are settled before the suit is even filed. This is the quickest and most effective way to get you the justice you deserve after your injury.
However, this should only be done after you have ended your medical treatment, because it will allow us to better understand how much your case is worth and what we should be asking for.
3. A Lawsuit is Filed
If we don’t settle out of court, we will file the suit.
4. Discovery
Discovery is what it is called when lawyers present all their evidence to each other, as well as their defense. We send documents requests and questions back and forth until we are satisfied that we understand each other’s arguments. We will also interview both the plaintiff and the defendant. This process can take a long time, up to a year in some courts, depending on the complexity of the case.
5. Potential Mediation
Towards the end of discovery, lawyers will begin speaking about settlement again. As we said, most auto injury cases are settled before they even go to trial–it’s the preferred method for both parties. This may include mediation, which is a process where both lawyers and their clients go before a court-appointed mediator to try to settle the case out of court. The mediator is usually a neutral third-party.
6. Trial
If negotiation and mediation are not successful, the case will go to court, including jury selection and everything that follows.