Have you ever wondered how a personal injury lawsuit works? When a person files a personal injury lawsuit it includes many damages like the salary loss due to the accident and compensation for emotion distress. In order to get that compensation, are a few steps that are involved in any lawsuit.
Plaintiff hire an attorney
In any personal injury claim, the person who has got hurt makes up their mind and hires an attorney to represent themself. After understanding the case and looking at the evidence at hand, the attorney decides if there is potential in the case and if it can have an outcome that is worth trying. If they feel that the plaintiff’s case is strong, they might agree to represent them and conduct further investigation into it.
Filing the case and serving the defendant
After the attorney takes up the case, they file a legal case in the civil court after doing the documentation formalities. After the case is filed, the plaintiff is given a month in which they have to serve the complaint to the other party, the defendant. Giving the physical copy personally to the defendant is necessary so they can’t claim to be unaware at a later time. The notice will also have a date when they need to be present in the court.
Defendant hires attorney
After getting served, the defendant takes two steps: they hire a lawyer, or inform the insurance company if they have insurance; the insurance company hires a lawyer if the defendant has not already done that.
Pre-trial and discovery
Before the actual date of the case trial, both the parties have to appear in front of the judge and inform them of the advancement of their progress in negotiations, and before the trial, they try to come to conclusive settlement terms. Both the parties share the evidence that they have and try to come to a mutual decision about the responsibility of an accident and the compensation amount.
The final outcome
In most accident cases, both sides are able to come to a settlement that they both agree upon. If they fail to do so, their case faces court trial which decides who is at fault and what amount should be awarded to the injured person as compensation for the damages caused.