If you've been in an auto collision and think you might have a personal injury claim, you might be wondering what goes on in a typical case, and how long it takes. The process usually goes like this:
GET MEDICAL TREATMENT. The first thing you should do after getting injured in a collision is to get medical treatment. If you are hurt, call an ambulance, go to the hospital, or see a doctor. Not only is this the right thing to do for your health, but also, if you don’t see a doctor for some time after a collision, the insurance company and the jury will assume that you weren’t all that hurt.
HIRE A LAWYER. The next thing that you will want to do for anything more than a minor claim is to choose a lawyer. You should choose the lawyer soon after the injury. You can certainly settle a small personal injury claim yourself (although a lawyer is generally useful even for smaller claims), but you will absolutely need a lawyer for any personal injury claim where you suffered significant injury or other losses.
Where do you draw the line between a small claim in which you don’t necessarily need a lawyer and a larger claim where you do? In general, if you are out of work for more than a couple of days, if you break a bone, or if your medical bills total more than a couple of thousand dollars, you should hire a lawyer.
You should certainly talk to a number of lawyers, and you might want to meet several of them. After you choose a lawyer and sign a fee agreement, they will start working on your case.
THE LAWYER INVESTIGATIONS THE CLAIM AND REVIEWS YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS. The first thing your lawyer will do is thoroughly interview you about how the collision happened, your background, and your medical condition and medical treatment. Your lawyer wants to know everything that you know about the collision and your injury and treatment. Lawyers don’t want to be surprised, so make sure to answer all questions as completely as you can.
Then, the lawyer will contact the insurance companies to inform them that you have retained legal counsel. Then they will get all of your medical records and bills relating to the injury and will probably also get your medical records for any treatment that you have ever had relating to the condition at issue in the case. This can take several months, especially if you are still treating for your injuries.
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After all of the medical records come in, your lawyer will review them to see if, in their opinion, there is a possible case. Sometimes the lawyer will determine that there is no case and will deliver the bad news to the client very early on in the representation.
THE LAWYER MAKES A SETTLEMENT DEMAND AND NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN. Many smaller personal injury claims are settled before a lawsuit is ever filed. If the lawyer thinks that the case can be settled, they will make a demand to the other attorney or the other side's insurance company. Otherwise, your lawyer will file the lawsuit. In general, if your claim involves a claim of permanent injury or impairment, your lawyer will not settle it before filing suit.
An experienced lawyer will also not make a demand until the claimant has reached a point of maximum medical improvement (MMI). MMI is when the claimant has ended their medical treatment and is as recovered as they are going to get. This is because, until the claimant has reached MMI, the lawyer does not know how much the case is worth.
The lawyer should also not file a lawsuit until MMI. This is because, if the claimant is not at MMI by the time that the case goes to trial, the jury might undervalue the case.
It could take months or years for the claimant to reach MMI, but a good lawyer will just wait, if the claimant can financially afford to wait. Obviously, if the claimant needs money, then the lawyer should file suit as soon as possible.
THE LAWSUIT IS FILED. The filing of the lawsuit starts the clock running on when the case might get to trial. Every state’s (and often every county's) pretrial procedures are different, but generally it will take one to two years for a personal injury case to get to trial. Keep in mind that a lawsuit needs to be filed within strict time limits that every state has set by passing a law called a statute of limitations.
DISCOVERY. Discovery is the procedure in which each party investigates what the adversary’s legal claims and defenses are. They send interrogatories (written questions) and document requests to each other, and take depositions of all of the relevant witnesses in the case, generally beginning with the plaintiff and defendant. This process can last six months to a year, depending on the court’s deadlines and the complexity of the case.
MEDIATION AND NEGOTIATION. As the discovery period ends, the lawyers will generally start talking about settlement. Sometimes the lawyers can settle a case just by talking among themselves, but, in other cases, they will go to mediation. Mediation is a process in which both clients and both lawyers go in front of a mediator who helps them try to settle the case.
TRIAL. Often mediation works, but if it doesn’t, the case is scheduled for trial. A personal injury trial can last a day, a week, or even longer. One important thing to know about trials is that just because a lawsuit is scheduled for trial does not mean that the trial will actually occur on that date. Trials often get rescheduled because of the judge’s schedules. If your trial gets cancelled, you should not automatically assume that the lawyers are conspiring against you or that something unfavorable is happening. Trials are delayed all the time, and for the most innocuous of reasons.
If you or a friend or loved one has been injured in an auto collision and have questions about how the claim process works, give us a call at 253.858.5434 to find out how we can be of service.