If you experience a personal injury, one of the first things that you need to do is contact an attorney. An experienced personal injury attorney is your best chance of getting enough compensation to cover your medical bills, lost wages, and any other expenses related to your injury. However, once you start working with a personal injury lawyer, you may wonder how they will approach your case.
That is understandable because you have a lot riding on their success. If you ask your lawyer about the process, then they will be happy to walk you through their strategy. But if you want to get an idea beforehand, then continue reading. And if you need an experienced personal injury lawyer, then contact Fasig & Brooks Law Offices for help and advice.
Meeting With The Client
The first step every personal injury lawyer takes is to meet with their clients. During this meeting, the attorney will ask detailed questions about the accident, the extent of your injuries, your background, and your medical history. This is so that they can get as much detail as possible about the events leading to your injury and also so that they can counter any claims that your injury occurred before the accident. This is the best time to consult an advice from a semi truck accident lawyer Andy Gillin.
During this initial meeting, your personal injury attorney will also discuss their fee agreement. Most personal injury lawyers use a contingency fee, meaning that they don’t get paid unless the case is successful, at which point they receive a percentage of your compensation.
Investigating The Accident
Once the lawyer agrees to take your case, they will then start an investigation to get more details that can help them determine what your compensation should be. They will start by collecting any injury-related medical expenses like medical bills and repair bills. Your lawyer will also obtain your medical records to find out the extent of your injuries and how long they might last. If it is necessary, they will hire an investigator to speak with any witnesses and photograph the accident scene. This process can take some time depending on the extent of your injuries, but your lawyer needs to be thorough in order to get you the best possible compensation sum.
Negotiating a Settlement
Personal injury cases rarely go to trial because the lawyers involved are usually able to reach a settlement offer before then. Your lawyer will attempt to negotiate a settlement offer with the insurance company of the party responsible for the personal injury. That insurance company will send a claims adjuster to investigate the case and come up with their own settlement offer. Your personal injury lawyer will advise you as to whether the settlement offer is reasonable and if you should accept or reject it. If you do accept it, then the case is over, but if you don’t, then it continues onto the next step.
Filing The Personal Injury Lawsuit
This happens if a settlement offer cannot be reached, usually because it is too low to cover the victim’s injury-related expenses. In many cases, a lawsuit is a last resort that can pressure the insurance company to reconsider their initial offer. Your personal injury lawyer will help you to file a claim against the insurance company and help to prepare you for the trial. Once the lawsuit is filed, the discovery process begins. This is when each party investigates the other party’s offensive and defensive legal strategies and prepares to counteract them accordingly.
Mediation or Arbitration
Once the discovery phase of the lawsuit is completed, both parties will usually return to the bargaining table once more to try negotiating a settlement again. This is usually done via a process called mediation. This is when a third-party mediator, who has been approved by both parties, oversees the negotiation. The mediator does not decide the settlement amount, rather they are there to facilitate negotiations between the two parties.
Arbitration is the other type of method of resolving the dispute between the parties. This is like a mini-court case where a hearing is conducted and is overseen by a neutral third-party. The difference between this and mediation is that the result of mediation is non-binding whereas the result of arbitration is binding.
The Trial
A trial is a last resort because it is an expensive, unpredictable, and lengthy process, but if the two parties fail to reach a resolution, then it is the only choice. During the trial, all of the information that has been collected during the previous phases of the case get presented before a jury so that they can ultimately render a verdict on whether the victim deserves to get compensation, and if so, how much compensation they should get. Depending on the complexity of the case, a trial can last days or months.
Get an Attorney For Your Personal Injury Case
The way that a personal injury attorney approaches their case is all for the benefit of their client. That is why you should contact an attorney as soon as you can after suffering a personal injury. Your attorney will do everything in their power to ensure that you get a fair settlement that will cover all of your expenses. An attorney will do all the heavy lifting to make sure that you are compensated fairly by the insurance company. With the help of a personal injury attorney, the chances of a successful resolution to your case increase dramatically. So get in touch with an experienced attorney if you have suffered a personal injury.
