Personal injury cases often settle prior to reaching the lawsuit stage, with settlements often occurring before any formal court action takes place. Such claims could involve premises liability, auto accidents, defective products and medical malpractice as potential factors.
A person suing for personal injury must establish both liability and damages. Damages include costs such as medical bills, lost wages and property damage. Non-economic damages include things such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium and emotional distress.
Settlements
Personal injury cases often settle before going to trial unless there are unresolvable issues; insurance companies tend to prefer compensating injured parties directly rather than risk paying out higher verdicts in court.
How long your case takes to settle depends on how aggressively and willing both parties are in negotiating with an insurance company. Most personal injury attorneys have considerable experience handling personal injury claims and often work closely with insurance company lawyers in settlement proceedings.
Experienced personal injury lawyers know exactly what type of case you have, including which judges and juries they work with locally. An effective personal injury lawyer can get you a faster settlement while also helping prevent mistakes that often lead to lower settlement amounts.
Verdicts
Personal injury cases require careful analysis. Victims must consider both the possible outcome and any total compensation that might come out of their lawsuit; though winning an impressive verdict might bring more immediate benefits than expected.
Understand that verdicts don’t always correspond with final settlement offers in personal injury cases, particularly ones with complex medical or legal issues that take time to resolve.
As soon as a case goes to trial, its details become public record. This means that sensitive information, like medical histories or product defects can become readily available to anyone with the means. For some plaintiffs, this can be embarrassing and lead them to settle early so as to keep private details off the record.
Cases that go to trial
Most personal injury claims can be resolved through mediation or arbitration rather than litigation; when necessary, plaintiff’s lawyers work towards optimizing compensation for their clients.
If the defendant refuses to negotiate, taking your case to court may be necessary for recovery purposes and holding them accountable. This approach could result in larger sums being recovered as well as help hold them responsible.
Litigation involves filing pre-trial court motions before trial begins, such as to seek the judge’s ruling on discoverable documents or an acceptable venue. These court filings can take considerable time, delaying trial commencement.
An experienced personal injury lawyer will always consider your individual needs and strategize the most efficient plan for winning your case, whether that involves settlement or trial. They are experts at reviewing medical records and other evidence in order to ascertain what compensation should be granted in your favor.
Attorney fees
Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis, meaning they only get paid if their client receives a settlement or verdict. This arrangement allows injured people to avoid up-front legal costs while protecting against not receiving full compensation for their injuries.
In their contract, lawyers and clients must stipulate exactly how costs will be deducted from the final settlement amount. Such costs could include office/copying/facility fees, expert witness fees, filing fees or travel expenses.
A contract must specify whether an attorney’s fee percentage will be calculated before or after total costs have been estimated, and whether any costs will be advanced by their lawyer and deducted from final compensation awards. Cost and expense amounts must be reasonable given the complexity, skill requirements and time invested in handling each individual case.
